


Percy Jackson: Tears

by Remixedsoul



Category: BioShock Infinite, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Supernatural
Genre: Angst and Humor, Child Abuse, Depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 15:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 43,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4611687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Remixedsoul/pseuds/Remixedsoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy is an abused boy, his mother is missing and he's left with his step-father Gabe until one day he runs away and meets Apollo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Running away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is mainly uploaded on Wattpad.com

Percy's P.O.V

* I do not own PJO*

I was running through the cold winter streets of New York, blood stained the back of my shirt clinging to my skin I pushed through the crowd not daring to look back. I flinched every time a horn of a car beeper of a car beeped or when someone yelled into their phones. No one noticed me, I'm not complaining, I'd rather be invisible to the world than have every person I pass stop to ask "Why I'm crying" or "Is that blood on me?" and worst of all 'What happen?" I finally made it to Central Park my wounds stung and the cold air made me feel frozen. I collapsed behind a tree, I found a scrap a newspapers and plastic bags to cover my body with and laid down just as the snow started to fall. Now all I have to do is freeze to death.

No ones P.O.V

A man walked through Central park cursing the winter snow, he fixed his blond hair and shoves his hands into his pocket and continued his walk, why couldn't' t it be warmer... He could probably have it come out and the mortals would just think it was "global warming" or something like that but he'd probably get in trouble. The snow began piling up crystallizing the Park, but something seemed... out of place. He noticed a trail of blood, no it couldn't't be blood, reluctantly he followed the trail till it stopped at a pile of newspaper and...a body? He crouched down and carefully began removing the underneath was something thing that even startled. Him a boy, no older than 6, with cut all over his body, mostly on his back laid shivering, Apollo stared debating whether to leave him or take him with him. For a split second he had thought the boy had stopped breathing but he busted coughed and began to sit up. " Oh thank gods..." Apollo breathed " I though you were dead..." the boy rubbed his eyes "W-what?" the boy grumbled in a sudden panic the boy stood up and stared disapprovingly Apollo,who simply smiled at and remained crouching. " I don't need your help" he said angrily it was kind of hard to take him seriously especially with the blood that was trickling down his face. " It's alright I'm not going to hurt you" Apollo smiled, the boy stepped back " I'm not suppose to talk to talk to strangers" he retorted crossing his arms, he's arms were covered in bruises. "Well" said Apollo " You shouldn't be out here alone, where are your parents do they know your out here, how'd you get like this?" The boy didn't answer his blue green eyes seem hurt and broken and his face looked oddly familiar. " I don't know" he whispered shifting uncomfortably. That teared it Apollo thought to himself, "Well" he said standing up "You can't stay here." that face Apollo thought wait... "Sally...?" he said out loud. The boy looked up shocked " You know my mother?"

Apollo crouched so he was eye level with him, and asked him, "Has your mother ever told you about a place called Olympus?"

The boy nodded slowly "I think she mentioned it a few times, she told me stories about gods and stuff." "Well what if I told you...nah" the boy smirked "Try me" Apollo smiled " Well those gods your mom told you about, I'm one of them." the little boy raised one eyebrow "Are you on drugs?" Apollo laughed "Don't believe me?", "I'm 6 and a half,I'm not retarded" Apollo stood and put his hands up in defeat "Your right I guess, I'm just drunk." he turned and began walking away . "Wait" said the boy in a desperate tone of voice follow by foot step trying to catch up to Apollo. "I didn't mean it like that, It's just...It hard to believe." he said shyly. Apollo looked down at him, the boy kept his head down his black messy hair had a few very small bald patches,where ever this boy came from he was not going back "Hey" Apollo crouched down and took the boy's hand "Watch this." Suddenly the boy's body felt warm his eyes amazed at how his cut and bruises began to fade. "Believe me now?" said Apollo leading the boy in the direction of the Empire State building, nodded staring at his arm. "By the way whats your name?" the boy looked up there was a certain blazing glow in his eyes. "I'm Percy Jackson."


	2. Olympus

Percy's P.O.V 

I don't own Percy Jackson.

After a little while I began to calm down fully, no one could have followed me I told my self, I was finally away from him, no more beatings,alcohol, or yelling,I could finally sleep peacefully. I was free I wouldn't have to be terrorized anymore. Then something struck me, where is this guy taking me, who the hell is he? My mother told me never talked to strangers and I broke my promise, and I was to stupid and gullible to see that. I suddenly yanked my hand away from the man. He turn and looked at me concernedly " You okay? Something wrong?" I crossed me arms determined to look intimidating but a six year old with missing teeth is as intimidating as a dog with no hind legs, "Yeah, first of all who are you and where are we going? The man chuckled " Well I though my little magic trick back there would have convinced you. Well I'm Apollo, you know God of light,healing," I don't how he expects me to think he was a god, oh well anything to boost his self confidence,actually no I should probably lower that. 

"More like god of drugs..." I muttered 

"And that building- wait what?" 

" I didn't say anything,those drugs are getting to you." l said shaking my head 

Apollo chuckled " Your terrible, as I was saying that building is where I live." 

"The Empire State Building? Impressive." 

Apollo smiled " Not quite." 

When the traffic finally cleared,Apollo took my hand and lead me across to the building I prayed silently to my mother that Apollo wasn't a liar that I could trust him, I couldn't go back to my old life. My heart raced as we entered the building, it looked like a normal old lobby, nothing enchanted or magical about it, it was a large lobby with a beautiful golden chandler there were different painting hanging in the wall,and a bronze statue of a lady holding a scale, not enchanted but very beautiful, what really caught my attention was the gigantic golden elevator door next to the front desk. We approached a front desk the man in a black suit and red tie, he was reading a red book, with big words I couldn't read the words seem to float off the cover and mock me, but I could tell it was some boring adult book. "600th floor." said Apollo I looked up at he looked annoyed front desk man sighed and put down his book. 

"There's no 6-" 

"Don't give me that no 600th floor gimmick just give me the key card." 

The front desk man nodded quickly can began fumbling around behind the desk until finally handing Apollo a key, "Sorry, my lord." he said quietly, oh great he's whacked too, I thought to myself. "mhm" said Apollo taking my hand and leading me to the elevator "Lord Apollo, I'd be careful if I were you Zeus will not be p-" 

"I know what I'm doing." Apollo said dangerously low. The elevators slid open and Apollo gently push me in, he shoved the gold key card into the slot and jammed a button with strange letters on it, the doors slid close and the elevator began to move. "You okay?." said Apollo, I did my best to avoid his eyes, "You seemed pretty mad at the front desk man." my voice shook as I talked and with my missing teeth I must have sound like a idiot. Apollo sighed " Yeah..." I looked down he seemed really annoyed "Well if it helps,I didn't like his book." I heard him chuckle. For rest of the elevator ride we were silent, my mind keep wandering to what was going to happen to me, was Apollo some rich person? maybe he spent all his money on drugs and alcohol, but my mother would never talk to people like that, but then again theirs Gabe. "It's over" my mind screamed " Your DEAD this man who's claims he's a so called god lied to you didn't you get a hint when he said 600th floor????" but my wounds...I shook it off. My mind's right I shouldn't have beliv-

My thoughts were interrupted by a a sudden ding. The doors slide open, my jaw dropped and my eyes widen.

"Well" Apollo said " Believe me now?"

"Where am I." I whispered in awe

"Welcome to Olympus."


	3. The Gods

Percy's P.O.V:

When the elevator doors slid open my heart almost stopped, a trillion feet below me was Manhattan, but in front of me were marble steps that wounded up the spine of a cloud, into the sky at the peak of it were dozens of multi-leveled palaces, the place was full a mansions with white-columned portico, gilded terraces,and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires[1]. Just like my mother had described to me and in the book she showed me. Apollo chuckled "Impressed?" I nod stepping on to the stone path "It's huge" I whispered in awe " Come on" said Apollo " I'll show you around."

"And that up there in the temples nymphs and satyrs-" 

"Can we see the throne room now?" I whined, we been walking around Olympus for hours, Apollo had seemed nervous and unsure of what to do every time I asked him, he would look around as if some were watching us or he was afraid of getting caught doing something illegal. " Are you okay? You look nervous..." "Hm?" said Apollo taking his attention away from the gigantic palace that sat higher than any other building. "Is that were the throne room is?" I began moving toward the building, it had gold accents and statues made the palace stick out more than other building we seen. 

Apollo's P.O.V.

Obviously I didn't think this through, if Zeus finds this kid he won't be happy, after all he's suppose to be dead..."Is that were the throne room is ?" I snapped into attention." Percy," I began suddenly someone appeared between me a Percy.

"There you are!"

"Hermes I-"

"No, you promised to help me change all of Aprohdite's make-up with this-" Hermes held up a small blue tube, "What is that?" I said taking the tube from him, " It will make her skin turn-" Hermes stop and spun around, Percy stood behind him looking at me and Hermes, Hermes turned back to me " Oh my Gods what are you doing.";

"Okay,look I was walk around Central Park and I found him."

"Zeus is going to kill him and then you.", "He was bleeding to death when I found him." The idea of Zeus killing Percy made my chest hurt. "Well how did that happen," Hermes voice was now low "Do you think, his blood is that strong?" I did say anything,Hermes turned around and knelt so he was eye level with Percy, "Where are your parents?" Percy shrugged, the question seem to bother him, and he began flatting his bangs, trying to avoid eye contact with Hermes " Are you sure, what about your dad?" Percy seemed to hesitate before finally saying " My mom told that he was lost at sea..." Hermes raised a eyebrow "Sea?" Percy nodded slowly. Hermes stood up. I often under estimate Hermes, he can sometimes have his moments " We can hide him." Wish full thinking... " Where can we possible hide him on Olympus..." Hermes seized Percy by his under arms and hoisted him into his arms "Come on I know a place."

Percy P.O.V.

As we walked Apollo and Hermes spoke in a strange language I've never heard before and occasionally glanced at me, I felt awkward being carried by someone who can burn me to a crisp in a millisecond, but I was happy that we were finally going to the throne room, or should I say pass by it. I only caught a glimpse it was big and not just the room in general but the doors and thrones were gigantic they were set up in a U-shape, each one looked different from the other, one throne was platinum with lightning on the sides it was the middle of all the thrones, next to it was one of those deep sea fishing chair decorated with coral, It reminded me of when my mother and I went to Montauk, " This way." said Hermes, We continued walking down a long hall way past different doors till we reached a plain silver door, that looked out of place, compared to all the other doors it wasn't fancy and it didn't have any engraving on it. Hermes took out a small silver key for his pocket and inserted into the lock and pushed open the door. The room was decently size their was a window that provided light and I could see the city, but it was packet with boxes and crates stacked up with funny writing on it. Hermes placed me on top of a crate " Well?" He said to Apollo, he seem quite proud of himself, " What's with all the boxes", he questioned while cautiously lifting the lid on a small crate, Hermes sprung toward Apollo and quickly closed the lid, " N-Nothing" he stuttered " Just you know, surplus ...?" Obviously Apollo had been in this situation before, and decided not to dwell on it. 

"Well now what?" said Apollo , "We give it food, make sure it has all its shots and and take it for walks daily." said Hermes plainly, and glared secretly at him, I wasn't a pet. "Hermes I'm serious we can't leave him here." Hermes crossed his arms and sat on a crate like a 3 year throwing a tantrum " Well I can't think of EVERYTHING! I found the room now you think of something." Apollo groaned "Fine I'll ta-.", The door suddenly swung open and a young woman with auburn hair bursted into the room,I didn't get much of a glimpse of her though because as soon as she came in Hermes hand had push me backward making fall behind a stack crates,my back hit the ground and a sudden shock of pain jolted through me. " Okay, where is he." her words seething with rage, I decided to stay down.

"What" Apollo and Hermes said in unison, I carefully peek out from the side the crate, the woman looked somewhat like Apollo except she had seem less easy going, her eyes were silver-yellow she had a quiver full of silver arrows on her back. She grab Apollo by his shirt "Calm down little sis" He said trying to pry her her hand off her. " First of all we both know I'm THE OLDER TWIN, and next where is he?" she then released Apollo and crossed her arms and innocently said " I won't tell Daddy." Hermes stood and exchanged glances with Apollo " How can we trust you?" question Apollo, Artemis began twiddling he finger and her cheeks turn red "Well..., You know how I can't back down from a challenge," she said slowly "and Aphrodite bet me she could shot an arrow of of a sytar's head, into a tree and break a specific branch ...and er" "Cut to the chase!" Hermes interrupted "Bottom line, I need to do one good deed to get my bow back and I thought I could help you idiots with what ever your doing.", "Aphrodite touched a weapon?" inquired Hermes, "Look," Artemis again grab Apollo " Let me Help you our your precious little car will end up in a scrap heap."

Apollo and Hermes again exchange glances "Percy come out." said Apollo. My back still felt sore still as I got up from my hiding spot, with ever move I winced "You okay Perc?" Apollo asked coming over to me, "My back hurts" I groan the pain making me feel nauseous. Apollo began lifting the back of shirt carefully, " Did you hit you back when you f- holy crap." I heard Artemis and Hermes draw breaths sharply, I felt my face getting hot and I began nervously flatting my bangs. I not sure how I got it but for the longest time I had a large bruise in the middle of my back and if I wasn't careful a large deep cut would open up along my spine,my mother had it stitch a couple times, they'ed always pop. " Percy how did this..." "It's always been there!" I said quickly " I doesn't seem to go away..." "Didn't you heal him?" said Hermes "I-I did." said Apollo shocked.

The room was silent, "Hermes take Artemis and call a meet, I'll be ready in half a hour." Hermes began ushering Artemis out the door her eyes where still on me, she spoke in that weird language I heard before, " I'll explain on then way" replied Hermes. The door clicked close and it was just Apollo and me. I feel my heart pounding in my chest. "Get ready to explain yourself." my mind said, but instead Apollo sat on a crate and gingerly place me in his lap I suddenly felt drowsy, "Anywhere else hurt?" Apollo asked I shook my head feeling and began feeling drowsier. I suddenly feel my head against Apollo's chest. Was it Apollo making me feel drowsy or did my back bruise take all my energy out of me and why so suddenly? I though I heard Apollo say something but had already slipped into a deep sleep.

[1]: Those are not my words! I got it from the book. I DON'T OWN PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS RICK RIORDAN DOES I AM NOT A 48 YEAR OLD MAN.


	4. The Past

Apollo P.O.V. 

I though it would be hard on Percy to ask him what happen so I decided put him to sleep, and use my power to enter his Hippocampus, his memory. The downside to doing this is it would be like a nightmare for him.

At first the room was foggy, I could make out I was in a small apartment outside looked dark suggesting it was the middle of the night, cars bustled, as everything became sharper I noticed the floor was littered with empty bottles of liquor some were broken leaving sharp shard everywhere. Suddenly I caught the eyes of a woman holding a small 3 year old boy, she had straight brown hair, and sparkly blue eyes, she was a beautiful woman, but she had scratches and bruises on her face, I can't believe this was the same Sally I met before. Sally's eye were transfixed on a large walrus man recking of alcohol. "Gabe," said Sally, her voice was sweet like honey," I need the money to take him to the-" "WHO GIVES A FUCK THE BRAT." Gabe roared, the boy shuddered, suddenly everything became foggy again, I felt dazed I took me a little while to focus again. When everything cleared Gabe was gripping Percy by his a hair,Sally still had one had gripped to Percy's pants leg a thick trail of trickled down her forehead. "Please," she begged " Just let him go, I'll do anything you want, just don't harm him." Gabe smiled wickedly, In one quick motion he slammed Percy onto a nearby kitchen table, his hand clamped around his throat squeezing the like out of him. "Leave" he growled Sally had a terrified look on her face. The vision started be coming dark " Mom" I hear Percy choke out. The vision went totally black, and then again foggy I blinked trying to clear my vision. I was again in the apartment It was now day and there was snow falling outside it looked worse than before but now more bottles of beer, cigars, poker chips, and half empty pizza box were strewn all over the place. In the corner was Gabe a heavy, drunken, lump passed out in the corner, I approached it "Pig" I growled. I suddenly realized Percy was nowhere to be found, it gave me a eerie feeling, A splinter door with metal locks caught my attention, because it was just a memory I could just pass through it. The room was worst than the living room, there were magazines and stacked in the corner of the room, the walls had red stains on it. The only light source was the a fire escape window which seemed to be purposely bared but it had a couple of bars broken out of it. 

In the far corner of the room was a mattress, there were no sheet on it was just a plan thin flimsy mattress on the floor, next to it screwed into the wall was a oddly placed D-ring with chain attached to it, there was one like this next to the door at the entrance of the apartment. I heard some turn the door knob on the door entranced and I rushed back to the living room, I saw Percy peer his head in through the entrance, He looked older,tried, his eye had faded a black and blue ring around it, his face and arms were covered in cuts some old some new he also looked greatly under fed. Quietly he shut the door behind. He began making his his way toward the wooden door, Gabe suddenly stirred from his slumber. He got up using the furniture to help him walk toward Percy, "Well hand it over" he said gruffly. Percy mumbled something "What?" he said annoyed "Speak louder!", Percy bit his lip "I don't have it." Gabe's face turned purple "What?" He grabbed Percy by his shirt collar and pushed him against the wall. "They said they I was under age and wouldn't sell it to me!" Percy said quickly " I TOLD YOU TO GO TO PETE'S." Gabe demanded shower spit on Percy's face." He got closed down! The placed is boarded up!" "THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE STOLEN IT!" he roared throwing Percy on the floor. Percy cried out and gripped his back. " Just like your mother." Gabe snarled " That slut could do any thing correctly." Percy coughed and wearily stood up " Don't talk about her." Percy grunted Gabe laughed, He then reeled back and aimed a kick into Percy's rib cage,he then again dragging Percy up by his hair "Wanna repeat that." He snarled Percy jaw clenched,"Did think s-" dark red liquid shot from Percy's mouth and hit Gabe in his face, he let go of Percy and grab his face grabbed and yelled. Percy crawl backward toward the door, he looked shocked and pleased with his work. "THAT'S IT!" Gabe roared "I'VE HAD IT WITH YOUR CRAP." Gabe charged at Percy, grabbing him and throwing Percy against the wall, He the picked up pick up a glass bottle and brought it down on Percy's head Percy slumped over and blood ooze from his back, the vision went became darker, it switched between clear and blurry.

I saw Gabe grab something round from the kitchen counter, and put it around Percy's neck, he dragged Percy to the door and connected something to it, when the vision cleared I could make out the object around Percy's neck was a makeshift metal collar, it had sharp edges and a connected it to the D-ring next to the door, I reached my hand out trying to undo the collar but I forgot it was only a vision and my hand went right through him like I was a ghost. Gabe continued to pellet glass bottles at Percy, soon he was a bloody mess,Gabe popped the cap on a bottle of beer, took a swig of it and spat it out on Percy. " I'll give 5 min to give me back my money asshole." Gabe fumed leaving the room.

Percy began fiddling with the collar, who ever made had cleverly put the same type of lock a handcuff uses so it could only get tighter around his neck "20 seconds!" Gabe screamed from the other room, Percy gave up on the lock and began desperately trying to pull the collar over head. "10,9,8..." called Gabe, heavy foot steps follows every number, Percy desperately pulled as hard as he could. Finally got the collar of but the rough edges made one cut on his face turn into gash. "1." said Gabe entering the room with a lighter and a knife, Percy undid the lock on the door." GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY!" Gabe bellowed, Percy threw open the door and ran down the stairs into the cold snowy winter air. 

AN: I'm not really pleased with this chapter I don't think I'm putting enough detail, but I wanted upload something on the day Percy Jackson the Sea of monster's came out. Please leave vote and comments thanks!!! Sorry again


	5. Judgement

Apollo's P.O.V.

"Apollo!" , I jolted out of the vision, Percy was asleep in my arms, his face was was pale and he was breathing heavily and was mumbling something, sweat forming on his forehead, the downside to the ability of entering memories is that the person will have a vivid dreams, they could be good or bad depending on the on the memory,

"Apollo." Hermes eagerly shook my arm "What happened." I laid Percy carefully on a crate and wearily stood up, instantly the room spun and had to put my hand against the wall to keep my balance, " Careful... You look sick." he said

I inhaled deeply straightened up " Did you call a meeting." I asked 

Hermes nodded "Yeah, all that's missing is you and me."

Convincing Zeus to not kill Percy will not be a easy task, hopefully I could get the other gods to vote in favor of Percy "How's his mood?"

Hermes bit his lip, "He was already in there waiting." my fist clenched, my mind immediately remember the doorman

I groaned "Lets just get this over with, better not keep them waiting." I said heading for the door.

Percy's P.O.V.

I woke up with a splitting headache, the room was to bright. I felt even more tired than when I went to sleep, I would've closed my eye but I feared I would fall asleep again. It was so real, everything was dark and cold. It seemed eternal, there was nothing below me or above me. I looked straight ahead, I squinted trying to adjust my eyes, was...someone there? I stepped closer instantly smack into something. I tried raising my hand but what ever was keeping me from moving didn't allow me to. I was in a glass case, and it was to enclosed around me for me to even bend my knees or raise my arms, I began panicking calling out to who ever was out there, but no sound came from my mouth strangely

I gave up and tried to muster any amount of force and break the glass with my knees and elbows, of course no luck. I must have been their for hours, sobbing pathetically. I suddenly stopped when I realize the man was closer. He was tall, about 6 foot 4, wearing clothes definitely not from this era probably from the 1900s give or take. A sharp pain broke my concentration, I looked down and my heart hammered against my chest, there was a hook on a chain in the back of my ankle. It was sharp and rusty it pierced the back of my ankle slightly pulling between the skin and bone, even if I could reach my ankle it was too deep to pull out.

The lukewarm blood rain into my shoe, desperately I looked up at the man, he was now inches away from me and even then I couldn't make his face, maybe it was my ADHD that made me unable to focus or it could be the new pain in my wrist, the scratchy pain in my throat told me I was screaming, more and more hooks dug into my skin, until finally they all started pulling in different directions, tearing and ripping my skin. That's when I woke up.

At first I thought it was one of those dream's in side a dream because I was surrounded by green elf women. They giggled as I looked gaped at there pretty with elfish features. It took me a second to realize my head was in one in their laps and I instantly sat up. They again whispered and giggle among each other, one spoke "You were moaning in you sleep." she said, my face grew warm.

Outside it looked late even all the way up here it was snowing I wonder if Gabe was looking for me, maybe my mother had gone back to the apartment, I'm beginning to wish I could go back and find her. "I hope we didn't wake you." the girl next to me said other than the green skin, she was petite around 15, with auburn hair she wore a white dress that reminded of a flower petal and sandals, gently she push my hair away from my eyes, her smile was warm and kind it almost made forget about my dream, but not completely.

She frowned, "You looked disturbed, is something wrong." I bit my lip I found it hard not to study the ground, "Where's Apollo?" again more giggling followed by

"He's like a lost puppy, isn't he sweet June?"

The girl's smile turn twisted painfully, " Don't tease him, and he's in a meeting with the other gods." , I stood, I remember Apollo talking to Hermes before I fell asleep

" That's in the throne room right, I need to go see them."

June took my hand, here face a bit more serious " I'm pretty sure Lord Apollo would want you to stay here."

I pressed my lips together trying not to smile at the face she called Apollo "Lord", I didn't want to stay here I want to figure out what was going, I remember my mom telling about Zeus the king of the gods, from all the stories I know for sure he wasn't the nicest god. I racked my brain for some excuse to leave.

"But," I pouted and made my best 'I'm-a-innocent-little-boy" look "I miss him." Stupid idea but effective, again there was more awing and giggling from the girls except June who groan and glared at the other girls, I leaned in close " Please, no will know." She stared at me bitterly, she was different from the girls, not all giggly and fangirlish.

"Five minutes, and if anyone ask you were looked for a bathroom." I smirked at her and slipped out the door as she began to politely tell the other girls to "Shut the hell up."

I retraced my steps back to the giant doors they were now closed though, I peek through the small crack in between the double doors, The 12 seats except one were now filled with people. They were all probably about 1000 ft, all of them had a grave look on their face, one very beautiful lady was sobbing quietly. The room's silence was broken when a dark haired man with a stubble beard in a suit stood, his eye were gray and grim. "You broke the oath," his voice was seething with rare, thunder rolled in the distance, The man in the fishing theme throne stood he had black hair and green eyes "Brother," he began 

"There is no excuse!" again thunder rumbled again, "I have made my decision, the boy needs to be killed. "

Immediately their was a uprising, they scream back and forth between each other. Apollo didn't move, his face was pale as he stared at the floor. My heart felt like it was going to explode and my body was paralyzed.

"You've should have stayed." the voice in my head screamed, their was no way in hell I would go back to Gabe, I could run away and find my mother and we'd move far away from here, maybe to Montauk. Their was a huge thunder clap and again the room was silent.

"Son of Poseidon or not that boy with cause trouble for all of us. " My ear tuned into the word "son" I stared at Poseidon, When I was younger my mom would tell me stories about him, she told me he was strong and powerful, but he could be kind and gentle I had eyes just like him too. If he really is my father he wouldn't let them kill me "Wishful thinking." said the voice.

"Or we can train him in preparation for Kronos." The room's eye shift to Hermes he stared at Zeus, a woman at the far side of the room spoke.

" I hate to admit it but, Hermes has a point, with him we could have the upper hand " casually she stroked the owl perched on the arm rest of he throne, she has an uncomfortable look on he face as though it just vomit a pelt into he lap.

Zeus sat back in this throne, and said nothing at first, then he sighed heavily "All those to keep Perseus." Everyone raise their hand, again he sighed "He can stay as long as Apollo and Poseidon look after him, Athena you will provide his education, if anyone slacks from their duties he leaves." No one argued, a small smiled found it way on to my face "Meeting adjourned." in a flash of light they all vanished.

"Where have you been, I said 5 minutes not half an hour! " June yelled frantically as I open the door. "Bathroom." I shrugged. The other girls weren't there anymore, and neither were the crates, the room now had furniture and a closet full with clothes. The only strange thing about the room was the back wall were the window use to be, unlike the other wall that were blue, it was white.

"Percy!" June yelled, I didn't realize that she was still scolding me still, the door handle clicked and a large man with a grizzly beard and a scars entered followed by Hermes and Apollo, Hermes's jaw dropped as he stared at the completely transformed room "Where are-." he began. I caught glance of June slipping out the door, her cheeks tinted greener than usual.

The man limps toward me and picked up a remote from off a side table, he pointed to the buttons " Red is power, blue scenery, and.... you can figure out the rest." he handed me the remote. "Got it?"

"No."

He turn away anyway and limped to the door grumbling. Hermes stopped him half way "The crates?!"

The large man groaned and disappeared, Hermes had a look frazzled on his faced as he also flashed out of the room.

Yet again it was just me and Apollo, he sighed "How are you feeling."

"Better," I responded sitting on the bed "What happens now"

"Well," he began sitting down next to me "You'll live here for now on, I guess Athena will be your teacher and whatever ,and you'll have to learn how to fight..."

My stomach dropped when he said fight, what would I protecting myself from, I wanted to ask him but instead came out "No more Gabe?" I felt my face got hot.

"Never again I promise." He didn't look at me and his tone sounded distant, I decided to changed the subject "Is Poseidon really my father?" Apollo narrows his eyes at me.

"How did you know that ?"

"Bathroom"

"What."

"Nothing." I smiled

"Aren't you tired?" Again my stomach dropped, the truth was I was exhausted but I rather feel like crap then have to a have a dream like that again.

"Come on." he gently said patting the pillow and taking the remote from my hands, I obeyed and laid down. I felt sleep settling when suddenly the lights turned off and my heart began to race.

"Apollo," I called trying not to sound alarmed.

"Problem?" he answered

I hesitated "Could you maybe stay awhile?" Apollo sat on the opposite side of the bed, he oddly gave off heat and glowed faintly in the dark. It's funny how just yesterday I was wondering if I was going to survive all the beatings, if my mother will ever return and we could run away together, now everything I know is completely different. The darkness was less intimidating now I stared at the ceiling and let everything sink in. I felt drowsy and I began to close my eyes. 

"Apollo?" I asked

"Yeah?"

"Are you and Artemis are related?"

"We're twins."

"Then why are you blonde and she's a brunette ?"


	6. 4 Years Later

Percy's Pov

"Back again Perseus?" Aster greeted as I sat on the stool, nymphs and satyrs ideally browsed around the small shop. " You did finished that bag already did you?" he joked. 

Aster's shop was small, cluttered,and dusty but if you looked hard enough you can find just about anything. I went there mostly for the rare candy and enchanted objects. I had to remind myself to be careful and read labels though 4 months ago I ate a whole bag of jelly bean and got a fever and my whole arm would change colors like a mood ring.

"Not this time."

"Well that's strange your never down here this often, what about your lessons?"

"The mortal children don't have school all this week." I answered smirking

"Oh right," he scratched his dark red beard "one of those holidays."

He took out a stack of old books from the behind the counter as he slid them aside they one by one placed themselves into different places on bookshelves, I don't really know what Aster is, his he look like he is in his 20s or 30s, unlike the other monsters around Olympus (other than the gods) he looked perfectly human. 

I got up from my stool "Can I ask you something?" 

"Shoot." he replied

"I been hearing Hera talk about a Camp."

"A Camp?" he repeated "Oh yes!"

"You heard of it!" I said jumping up excitedly, I moved out the way to let a sickly looking nymph make her purchase. A scroll dropped from somewhere above hitting my shoulder on the way down.

"Open it up." Aster instructed

I picked it up took it over to a nearby table to look at the old thing, it took me a couple tries to decode the writing, after the letters stopped flipping around I finally made out "Camp Half Blood" again and again I looked it over what I could gather from the lava rock climbing wall and the Pegasus stables, I figured that it was for no average human. "Can I keep this." I gasped. Aster point his finger at the map and flicked it upward, instantly the map snapped closed and tied its self off with string.

"No can do kid, I'm not even sure Hera wanted you to know about this, maybe you should talk to your father about it."

I sulked "He won't be back till next month maybe, and even then he'll probably be too busy."

"Well being god of the seas isn't easy."

I nodded," You have a point.."

Aster taped his wrist watch "It's around noon."

This meant two things, the shop was closing and Apollo would be back from his shift soon "Right." I said starting up the stairs. 

"Hey." He called to me, I turned and something small flashed in front of me, my reflexes were quick and I caught it. It was a gold drachma. "Try I.M."

I gave a slight thankful nod and ascended up the stairs, I placed the coin in my pocket and started my walk to the god's palace, the sun was low in the sky and their was a small crowd gathering outside a bar where they were showing Hephaestus tv news . I caught the whispers as I passed.

"I heard that they... "

"Black..."

I instantly knew that it was about, since last month there has been strange reports of black fog followed by a murder a few days later.

They seemed kind of random and happened all over the country the country. The gods or goddess couldn't think of a monster that could be behind it. During the day all of Olympus is quiet and the citizen were on high alert, but at night the agora was filled with chaos. Every night mobs of monsters accused their own kind of slaughter or being an accomplice, they would drag an innocent nymph, centaur, or satyr before the gods and demand that they'd be executed.

When the gods refused to, the crowed but matters into their own hands (and or hooves) and the next day the accused would have to hide in the hospital after being brutally beaten. The accounts made me also very nervous. I haven't told anyone, but I would still have those nightmares. They were like test, for example the first dream I had stooped after I managed to break the glass box and chain. I figured it was a dream so anything can happen, so I tried to break the chains and glass with my mind and after a couple tries the glass shattered and the chain snapped, I was even able to stop the chains before they would pierce me. Strangely a week later when I was joking around with Hermes in my room, I sneezed and a lamp exploded we both waved it off as some kind of a coincidence (but Hermes became nervous around me afterwards), then one night I tried the stunt again and shot a book off my bed and across the room, being the son of Poseidon I knew I shouldn't be able to that so I promised myself to stick to water.

I reached my room finally and flop down on my stomach on the bed, I reached under my pillow and brought out a remote. I pointed it the white wall opposite of me and hit a combination of buttons, and the white wall suddenly was New York City, it was as though I was watching from an apartment window fire escape. I probably watched the scene and day dreamed for an hour before Apollo came, immediately I asked him that question that was in the back of my mind all morning.

"Can we go to Central Park?" I rolled off the bed and crossed over to him, he groaned

"Again?"

"Yes again." I answered a bit bitterly

"We've gone all this week..."

"So," I said " We need to go again!"

"How about next week?"

"No, now!" I whined again

Apollo has taking me now and again to Central Park for a while now, when I was around 8 years old. Zeus and my father decided that it would be best that I didn't leave Olympus for my "safety"(what ever that ment). At first it was fine because Olympus was like Disney World times 3000 to me, but as I got older it became sort of lonely because I was the only person my real age. With permission Apollo began taking me to Central Park.

After some black mailing Apollo agreed to take me.

The air was cold and the leave were beginning to change color, I sat next to Apollo on a bench watching the other children on the playground."Don't you want to go play with them." asked Apollo

I watched as one girl picked up a coin from the ground whisper to it and then eat it. I turned to him and shook my head(1). He tugged my sleeve "Let's take a walk then." he said.

I slid off the bench and we began our walk, the Empire State building that could be seen through the trees, the orange sun reflecting off it. I squinted and made out the base of a mountain above the tip of the building.

"What's going on, need to tell me something?" Apollo asked

'Yeah," I confessed " Are their more people like me?"

"Like you how?"

"You know what I mean it's impossible for me to be the only demigod." I said a bit loudly

"Shh," he ordered "Be careful when your using that word."

I bit my lip, Apollo stopped walking "There is a place with more demigods Percy, but I don't think your ready to meet them yet."

I tried to hide my excitement by giving him a confused look "How come?" 

"Well," he began "You haven't really taken an interest in the other kids here."

"Did you not see the coin eating girl and the boy trying to scratch his brain through his nose?"

Apollo shuddered "Well not only that, you didn't exactly grow up like the rest of them."

"What do you mean?"

"Most of them haven't met or even heard from their godly parent, and they won't be ecstatic when they find out you been living with them for most of your life."

"Can't you guys just visit now and again?" I asked

"We wish we could but Zeus won't allow it, which is probably for the best."

I didn't see how that was exactly good, a faint beep came from my watch, I lifted my sleeve and the time flashed on the face "We have to head back I have to prepare for testing with Socrates." 

"Socrates?" he repeated

"Athena kind of quit" I explained "She said I was unteachable."

"She can be kind of a b-" he stopped himself

"Bitch." I finished for him

His face turn slightly red "Come on."

I hadn't realized it but we were at the glass doors of the Building, the usual red suit door man sat at the desk, I waited by the elevator doors as Apollo and the door man had there stare down, Aphrodite told me that they never clicked especially after Hermes and him accidentally cause a small fire in the Empire State Building "after Zeus got some news in the lobby they got level 4 probation." I asked her if level 4 was really that bad, and she told me "not as bad as level 12." the elevator doors slid open and Apollo met me on the inside I hit the silver button that was for floor 102, observation deck.

"Really..." he complained 

"Just for five minutes."

"You mean five hours."

"I thought you enjoyed me. " I said

"I enjoy not being cold. "

"Don't be such a girl."

A ding indicated we arrived on the floor I sprinted ahead down the narrow hall way past another red suited man who I could see was hiding a spiked tail behind him, I remembered being taught about a magical veil call mist that hid thing that mortal wouldn't be use to seeing, I tried to see what their seeing but it never works.

At the end of the hall was the glass doors that led to the observation but there is a door opposite that leads up even higher above the observation deck. A blonde boy around my age out on the deck stared at me curiously as I opened the heavy gray metal door. He probably thought I was really special if I could go somewhere he couldn't, I tried my best to look important as I entered. I made my way through a maze of copper piping, buttons and wires till I came to another set of stairs which led outside to the 103 floor balcony, which was off-limits due to the narrow terrace, low railing, and lack of bars.

Apollo was already up their looking at the city below, "No fair!" I protested joining him " You used your godly flashy thingy to get here first."

I caught him trying holding back a laugh, I leaned over the edge doing my best to keep my balance as I counted the heads below, it got to 32 when suddenly the weirdest sentence slipped out of my mouth.

"I don't believe what you said earlier."

"What?" he said

"What you said earlier it doesn't really make sense."

This time he didn't say anything so I decided to continue." I can understand that they maybe a little upset because of how I've been living, but we can easily avoid that by just keep it a secret, and I don't think you really care that I won't make friends."

Still nothing, I looked at him "And If you knew about the camp the whole time, why didn't Zeus send me there to begin with?" 

Apollo wouldn't look at me, his gaze was still on the city which was now glowing brilliantly. He opened his mouth to talk

"And don't say for protection," I interrupted "I'm not sure if I can believe that either."

I spoke again, "Apollo, What makes me so different why am I here?" Again he opened his mouth to speak

I felt a hand on my should, it was the man with the tail from down stairs "Sorry to interrupt but, Apollo your need for a meeting." 

After that I was escorted back to my room, I sat on my bed remember the meeting from 4 years ago. The word "Kronos" suddenly flashed in my mind. I remember the story of how Zeus rescued his siblings and how they chopped him up and threw him into Tartarus eons ago. If that's true why would they be so worried now?

I stuck my hand in my pocket and felt something hard and round in it, the drachma. I slide off my bed and crossed over to my closet, I closed the door and gently took the door knob, I stood to the opposite side of the door and pulled it, easily it slid from one side of the frame to the other side I then open the door and once closet was now a bathroom.

I stepped in and turned on the sink the water began trickling and I instantly felt a sharp tug in my gut. A thin mist began shoot out into the air, the lights causes a bit of a rainbow effect. I flipped the coin,

" Poseidon, Atlantis" I said. There was three beeps and then mist disappeared the coin clattered on the floor, a sudden urge to sleep washed over me, I turned off the water, closed the door and slinked over to my bed, I turned off the lamp and turned on the projection of the city. Then I just laid there waiting for my next nightmare.

(1): I witnessed this in Walmart


	7. Dean

It was dark and cold as usual, it was so quiet I could hear my heart beat. Minutes turn to what seemed like hours of me standing around. Usually the painful test would begin as soon as I fell asleep. " Maybe something's coming after me? " I thought preparing myself for whatever was in here. I listened for footstep,but only heard the sound of my heart. A new idea forced itself into my thoughts, "What if you're stuck here?" I felt my blood run cold at the thought. My mind flashed back to a documentary I watched on a room that was so quiet and dark that a person could go mad from being in there for an hour. My heart beat sped up, it almost popped when I hear a sudden loud echoy laugh.

" Are you kidding? " it said "That would be boring! "

My eyes darted around looking every which way, "It's to dark to see numb nuts." it said, my face got hot and so did my temper.

"Over here kiddo" said the voice followed by a bright light in the distance, it's like someone had turned on a lamp.

I began walking towards the light which turned out to be a room that was completely in white, literally. It was like a a unfinished page in a coloring book even the fire in the fireplace was white, It reminded me of that room from the Matrix but a little fancier.

"Percy" said the voice, This time the voice was right in front of me a tall man that I swear wasn't sitting in front of me rose from his chair, he look pretty pleased to see me. He took a step toward me.

I tried my best to not show fear, but stepped back. I hit something solid, the vast black void that I just came from was now replaced with a white wall. 

The man's smile widened, with every step he took toward the room began to gain color and the lighting became darker, to give you an idea of the room, picture a stereotypical room where there place is chocked full of books and theres a British guy sitting in a chair next to a fire place reading to you, sipping tea. Now remove the British guy.

The tall man was now standing directly in front of me, I looked him directly in the eyes. He had dark, neatly trimmed hair and stubbly beard, his eyes blue and I could tell by the wrinkles on his face that he smiled a lot.

Slowly he took his hands and cupped them gently around my face, "Perfect." he mouthed gently rubbing his thumb against my cheek.

Beginning to feel uncomfortable I pulled away, " Can I help you?" I asked

He seemed to snap back to reality when I spoke,

"Oh sorry about that." he said, walking back to his chair "This is the first time I've seen you in a long time. "

I gave him a weird look, he continued to smile at me

"Well maybe we should reintroduce yourself." I said

"Good idea, My name is Christstopher"

"Christopher?" I repeated

"No No, CHRISTstopher; you really got pronounce that Christ part."

"That's a stupid name. "

"Well I didn't bring you here to discuss names. "Christstopher crossed over from his seat to the fireplace, he rested on hand on the and the other hand he put behind his back, he deeply gazed into the fire.

"What is here" I asked cautiously stepping toward him. Christstopher was no longer smiling his gazed his eyes were fixed on the flickering flames. "What you think it should be." he said distantly. Christstopher raised his hand and waved for me to come closer.

Without my consent, my legs began to walk toward till I was standing right next to him.

"What do you see?" he asked I as looked into the fire I saw nothing out of the ordinary, I looked from Christstopher to the fire over and over again; confused on what I am suppose to see. "I don't see any-' Christstopher placed a hand on the back of my head and forced my head closer to the flames. My blood ran cold, but he stopped an inch or two before the flames, that's when I realized that the fire wasn't hot at all. "What do you see" he asked again.

I squinted and this time saw something it was a flickering silvery blueish-white line, like there was a there was rip in the world. My hand reached out my finger passed through the rip and disappeared on the other side. The edges felt pretty solid and it seemed like it could rip the slit even more. 

So I did, I gripped both sides of the tear and in one quick motion pulled it open. the rip split easily and it continued to quickly expand till it was a large circle that filled up the wall the fireplace, mantle, and bookshelves that were in front of was now replaced with a different scene. The rip seemed to open a "portal" to another area that looked like a doctor's office in a hospital. A young brown hair woman with blue eyes sat on a metal table with one hand on laid gently over her stomach, Her facial expression looked worried; a lumped formed in my throat when I realized who she was. The doctor tapped the clip board in his hands.

"Well were a little bit pass your due date there, but theirs no reason to worry remember the due date is just an estimate."

"But is it normal to go past 40 weeks?" said my mother

"Oh defiantly!" the doctor confirmed opening a cabinet " Many women that go past their expectancy date aren't always post term-post term."

"And will he be okay."

"There could be some health risk."

She bit her lip and he face went pale

"Well we can always try induce labor, how about next week?" The doctor took down a small clear bottle and syringe

"I think that will be best." 

"Oh" he said, turning around her and smiling "How have you've been since I gave you the injection."

My mom let out a slight laugh and smiled "When ever I take it he gets pretty lively and I can feel him kicking for a long period of time, there won't be any complication when the time comes right?"

"Not at all and before we end," he began to fill the syringe with the clear liquid I think it would be best that I give you one final dosage." 

My mother seemed to hesitate at the idea, but she slowly extended her arm and accepted the dosage. Just as the large needle touched her skin the tear closed. I turned to Christstopher, he was now standing behind me in the far back corner of the room. 

"What the hell was that, Christstopher?" I demanded

"You tell me." he answered, I took a step in preparation to punch him but stopped when heard muffled sob.

In the corner of my eye I caught another tear and quickly walked up to it and repeated the action I did before to open it. This time my mother was in a hospital bed, different wires were connected to her. she had one hand over her mouth and the other on her stomach, her face was wet with tears.

"There is another way to save him Mrs.Jackson, the drug is very new but it's made for problems like this, and their is a 50-50 chance of him either living or dying."

My mom wiped her tears "I want to go through with it."

"Are you sure?"

"I'll try anything at the moment."

The doctor stood and made his way over to a cart, he pulled out a key and grab a syringe filled with a dark thick looking liquid. Walking back over to my mother, he asked her to sit up the best she could and he proceeded to put the needle in her side and inject the liquid. My mother leaned back and began to breath heavily and let out a slight yell she held her stomach. As the doctor began calling for a nurse the tear closed.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked up to find Christstopher, "Who are you?" I whispered

"I saved you Percy, if it wasn't for me you wouldn't be here."

"That was you?" I asked

"No, it was one of my" he paused, looking for the right word "workers."

I backed away till my back touched a wall "What did you do?"

"It's simple, I made you a part of me. You should be thanking me Percy I've opened a perspective of life, not even those so call gods could understand."

"What do you have against them?" I said

"Don't you see their using you, locking you away keeping secrets about you. You know the truth don't you?"

"They wouldn't do that."

"No?" he said, stepping toward me, " To them your only purpose is to die for them, their cowards but I would never do that to you. Do me one simple thing and you can control them, all of them."

I didn't say anything this time, "See this room, what have you've noticed is missing?"

I scanned the room carefully, "A door." I answered

"Exactly." he said " I want out Percy and you're the only one who can get me out."

"And how did you do that?"

"Things like this are touchy, but it shouldn't be to hard for you, all you need to do is get a sacrifice."

"A sacrifice." I repeated, my heart was pounding at this point " Bullshit, I'm not killing especially for you."

"A LIFE FOR A LIFE" he boomed the lights when out and a icy blast of wind hit me, it was dark like I was in the void again, "Okay," I called out "That's enough I want out!"

"Don't you see." said Christstopher, he was nowhere in sight " This is fate there is no out." in the distance I could whispers they were getting closer and louder till it was just shouting "Fate!" they shouted "A Life for a life!"

I turned to move but the wall was there, I pressed against the wall, and squeezed my eyes shut "Let me out!" I screamed "I want out!" the screams rose higher.

When I opened my eyes again I was in my room, from here I could hear the distant shouting of the monsters from below in the Agora, I rolled over and did something I haven't done in months. I slipped my hand out from underneath the covers and held out my hand toward the window and then slowly lowered it, the window follow my action and closed.

[2 Months Later]

"Wait, run that by me again." said June for 3rd time as she adjusted the strings on her hoodie, I stopped backing my backpack to once again explain my plan.

"Okay," I picked up a magazine from the floor and showed her the ad in the back cover, "See this ad for this toy store?"

She nodded but still had a look that said "What the hell are you thinking."

"Look I'm just gonna be gone for a few hours." I said as slung my backpack over my shoulder, June caught my arm.

"You can't just leave, your not even allowed out of your room."

"I don't see how a satyr's death has to do with me." I retorted shaking my arm loose

"They just want to make sure you safe."

"I can take care of myself." I stuck my hand under my pillow fished out Riptide, a sword my dad gave me that's conveniently disguised as a pen, stuck it in my pocket, and crawled over my bed to the window.

"Just cover for me in case anyone comes into check on me."

"Percy, I already told you about Camp Half blood, which by the way Hera didn't want you hearing about, I'm not going to cover for a stupid stunt like this, have you even though about how your going to get there?" she ranted

"I have a map." I said simply

"I meant transportation wise doofus, it all the way on the other side of Central Park."

"I'll think of something." I mumbled, I opened up the window and swung one leg out, but before I could get the other one out June grabbed me and pulled me back in and closed the window.

"I'm not letting you leave and if you do I'll tell Hera and father." she threatened

"Come one June, nothings going to happen."

She squinted at me and but her hand on her hips, after a couple seconds of us staring each other down I spoke up.

"I'll tell ever one about you Apollo X Hermes fan-fictions."

"Pff, who are you going to tell your stuck in here."

Immediately I went to the window and opened it, below was the hustle and bustling Agora. I shot her a warning look, June crossed her arms and I took that as a challenge.

I sucked in some air and the loudest "Hey." we've ever heard from a shy, emotional scarred boy came out. June fearfully body slammed me to the ground, and slapped a hand over mouth. " No one one must know." she growled.

"Then can I go?" I pushed her off of me and again I went to the window and opened it.

"Sure, just go." this time she had a different tone in her voice

I swung both legs out and began my decent down the rocky hillside. "Wait," called June's voice from above as I looked up she dropped something silver from above, I caught the object behind my hand and my knee. "Be careful okay, don't talk to strangers okay?" I examined the object, it was my shield watch. I looked up and mouthed a thank you and continued down.

Get to the elevator doors was easy, a couple feet below the rock cliff is an Aqueduct I dropped down into the canal and then follow it till I got to where the water empties into a large pool, then I took the long way through the grove to get to the elevator. When I get to the lobby, the door man was as expected, reading, but just to be safe I exited through the back doors of the building. As I pushed open the doors a cold blast of air hit my face, I pulled up my hood and stared at the snow dusted streets of Manhattan. Every pole was decorated with lights, men and women hustled with children holding large packages and bags. I felt an uncontrollable smile find its way to my face as I made my way to the corner. I remembered every twist and turn Apollo and I took to get to Central Park [1] and in no time I found myself at the entrance of the park.

After walking at good distance I stopped and pulled out the map from my pocket, after staring and filling over a bunch of times, I soon realized that I had no clue how to read a map. "Think." said the little voice in my head "use land marks! " I pick out a orange triangle from the map and spun around looking for a larger orange triangle. I of course found nothing.

A sudden hand on my shoulder made my blood run cold, my brain automatic thought of a very upset Hera or Zeus. I turned around and my cold blood ran colder.

"Percy!" said the young blonde peppy woman, she greeted me with a unwanted hug, I hoped she couldn't feel my pounding heart. "you remember me don't you?"

I sure as hell did, her name was Sugar, Gabe's girlfriend while he was married to my mother, I never knew what a pretty woman like her saw in Gabe. "Oh sweet heart!" she said hold my shoulders look at me "you grown so much!" I shook her off me knowing that was a utter lie.

"What are doing out her here, its freezing come on!" she continued, she invited me to take her hand, "Gabriel has missed you so much!"

My heart beat began to speed up, and my eyes water as I had flashes of painful memories began sprouting up one by one by one, I backed away from her."and your mother as been worried sick!" 

This time I hesitated, " Don't even think about giving into a lie like that." the voice in my head made me come to my senses, and took of running ."Percy!" she yelled, I ignored her, I weaved in and out between crowds of people, and went squeezed between some bushes to quickly get to the other path, but my effort was completely useless. Before I could part the last section of bushes a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me through, the hand belonged to Sugar. Her strength was surprisingly bone crushing I twisted my wrist in her hand trying to escape. I angrily looked up at her a met another gut wrenching surprise.

Her eyes were fully black

"A life for a life sweet hea-"Sugar suddenly doubled over coughing, her face twist in pain, I saw my chance to escape and took it, I glance back once to look at Sugar. She was laying on the ground and people were starting to gather around her a few pointing in my direction. I kept run till I reached exit to the busy roads. A wave of deja vu hit me, and feeling exhausted I sat on a bench, I began thinking that leaving was a mistake and the Hera was right. I looked up searching for the Empire State building to get an idea of how far I ran, I tightly squeezed my eye shut trying to clear the fuzzy vision in my left eye. I felt tap on my shoulder, shoved my hand in my pocket and grab riptide this time ready for who ever or what ever. This time it wasn't Sugar, it was a boy. He was around my age, he had blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Hey, sorry to bother you but haven't I seen you somewhere before?" he said

I got up from the shaking my head, I wasn't in the mood to talk to someone after Sugar

"Yeah" he said " Your that kid from the observation deck."

I started walking toward the exit that led out to the streets, but he followed "Are you lost?" he asked 

"No why would I be?" I snapped

"Because that guy isn't with you and I've never seen you other than around the building."

"Well that doesn't mean I'm lost."

"Then where are you going?" he asked

"That's none of you business and stop following me."

"I'll have a guilty conscious if I left you alone and you ended up on 'Have you seen this boy' list"

To distract myself from him I pulled out my map and I tried my best to look busy I put my finger on where I circled the FAO Schwarz store, "Your going there?" he said from over my shoulder.

Annoyed I shoved my map back into my pocket "Knock off." I growled

"Well I think you should know that they closed that store."

I didn't say anything this time, "If you want" he continued " I can show you where they opened the bigger new one." 

I brought out my map "Show me." I said

He studied it for awhile he took it from my hand and unfolded it so it showed more than just Central Park "Right around here." he point to an area that was completely foreign to me.

"I can show a fast way to get there, want me to show you?"

I bit my lip and thought about the consequences, I decided that I could handle it "Lead the way." I said

"Awsome," he said smiling " and my name's Dean by the way, you?

"Percy"

After walking a couple blocks and we decided taking a train would be quicker, we didn't have to worry about money because, Dean had a year round pass thing. I learned a lot about Dean while were on the train, his father worked at the Empire state building, he was a only child, and he's favorite ice cream topping are gummy bears. He also learned a lot about me to, I told him my dad owned a large successful business in the Empire State, I'm home schooled and I had two older brothers.

"You two don't look a like." he said when I told him, I told him he should just take my word for it. The train cart was extremely packed, we squeeze between the people till we found a seat near a window, and for most of the ride we stared out the window watching the city zoom past us. When we got into a tunnel Dean started speaking, "Can I ask your a question?."

"You technically just did, but I will allow you another."

He let out a slight laugh, "Well at Central Park, I kinda saw what happen with you and that lady."

"You did?" I said

"Yeah, did you, you know..." he made a stabbing motion with his hand

"I hope not," I answered " I mean, I didn't even look back and I didn't try to fight back really."

"So," he said " What do you think happen some kind of heat attack?"

"Heart Attack" I confirmed

The train slowed down and stopped at a station, "Come on." Dean said, he stood up and put his jacket, "this is our stop."

We got off with a crowd of people and followed the flow up the stairs to a large lobby, it was bigger and more grand then the Empire State's. Projectors projected a wintry landscape on the high marble walls and ceiling making the illusion that it was snowing indoors, on the second floor a large tree decorated in white lights stood and in thee middle of all of everything was a beautiful clock. "Where are we?" I said 

"Grand Central," he said, he noticed my amazement "You've never been here?"

"Nope" I said as we started moving toward the exit

"Your missing out, Percy!" I pulled up me hoodie again once we got once outside, for the first time no matter what direction I turned I couldn't see any sign of the Empire State building.

"Isn't that cool?" said Dean pointing up, I followed his finger to a statue of Hermes that hung above the entrance. "Sure." I said not really impressed

"Who do you think that is?" he asked

"How should I know?"

We walked for a few more block and we finally reached the toy store excitedly we ran to a the entrance, a man dressed as a Toy solider happily opened the door for us. We explored every shelf and every room for the place. "Look it." said Dean, I abandoned the robotic dinosaur I was playing with and joined him near a large large line up of kids and adult. "What are they waiting on line for?"

"Santa Claus." said Dean, he stood on his tip toes trying to see the the end of the line

"Santa Claus isn't real." as soon I said that 5 horrified mother covered the ears of their now, hysterically crying children. "Yes he is." Dean protested

"Dean we past 5 getting here." I pointed out

"Maybe has superpowers."

"Or maybe he just doesn't existent." more screams of terror followed my sentence

"Your like 8 years old how can you not believe." 

"What?!" I said shocked " I'm not 8, I'm 10 you ass!"

"Oh, then your just really really small." he laughed

I felt heat build up in my cheeks, " Come on lets go."

"Okay, " he said still giggling " What are you getting."

"That." I pointed to the blue smiling remote control dinosaur on the floor

"That stupid thing?"

I nodded, "Why not?"

"That's for babies, I'll show a real toy." and before I could protest, he grabbed my sleeve and drag me out the store across the street and into another store, "Welcome to Nintendo World!" he exclaimed

The store was large and screens were place every where, kids gathered arrow different stations playing with different devices. Dean dragged me over to a station "Mario Kart is my favorite." he said

In the beginning I though that I wouldn't enjoy the game to much but by the time I finish playing with that game and all the others, I knew almost all the names of the Pokemon, Yoshi was my favorite Mario character, and my new life motto was "Good things come to those who break clay pots"[2]

"I really want one of these" I said as I kick Browser's ass for the 3rd time

"I'd look at the price tag if I were you."

When my eye caught the the $200.00 price tag my heart sank a little

"I definitely can't afford that, I only have $20 bucks." I said

"Sorry about that maybe we can head back to-" my watch beeping cut him off, I pulled up my sleeve and the clock flashed 12:00 noon "Dean I really have to get back to the Empire State building."

"So soon?" he said

"Yeah come on." we started heading for the exit, as I placed my had on the door Dean asked that I waited outside for him, I pushed open the door and watched from the outside as he vanished into a crowd of people. About 10 mins later Dean came out the store running full speed, and didn't stop when he got to me, he grabbed my sleeve and dragged me along behind him.

The train ride back was going to be long but for most of it I slept, when I woke up my head was against Dean's shoulder, "Sorry." I said

"No problem." the red mark mark on his cheek indicated that he feel asleep too.

We groggly stepped of the train and made our way to our way through Central park, "Hey Percy?" said Dean "Do you think we go to the top of the Empire State building, you know, where you and your brother were."

I really didn't want to go back just yet, and I was really enjoying Dean's company. "Alright but there is a small problem."

I explained to Dean that I there were people who worked for my dad on the observation level so we would need a distraction. We devised a plan that would hope fully get the attention of the worker so I could slip past. When we got to the floor I waited behind a pillar while Dean got the guard to leave his post with a sob story about dropping he's mom phone in a the bathroom toilet.

I quickly zipped up the stare to the 103 floor, Dean joined me a few minutes later. "Your pretty good at this." I said

"So are you." he panted stepping up on the ledge

"Careful." I warned

"I'll be fine." he smiled as he looked at the view

"If you fall I'll make absolutely no effort to catch you."

"Okay now I'm scared" he careful step down, we continued to talk as we watched the snow decorate the town. "Okay if Santa was real what would you ask for?"

I though about it for a little while, "My mom I guess I haven't really seen her in a long time."

"Oh, I'm sorry." he said, we sat on the ledge on silence for a short while after that "Hey I got you something."

I shot him a weird look, from his jacket he pulled out a white box with a picture of Nintendo DS on it

"No way." I gasped, he hand the box over to me, a smile slowly crept across my face "how did you get this?"

"I took it out of some ladies bag, she was to busy with he bratty kid to notice me."

"Thanks." I tried to control the smile on my face but gave up

"I have to go now but maybe if you bring we can play co-op." he stood up and began heading for the exit " It was nice meeting you."

I nodded "Nice meeting you too, are you sure can get back down won't the guard be looking for you?"

"I'll be fine," He smiled "Bye."

"Bye." I decided not to automatically go back up, I wanted to see if I could see Dean leaving, that is if he didn't go through the back exit. My little game was interrupted when someone suddenly wrapped one arm around me and with the other hand they pulled at my ear.

"Found you." said the voice that I recognized as Hermes "Jeez hide and seek is hard."

"What?" I said bitterly rubbing my ear

"Don't you remember we were playing hide and seek, it was your turn."

"Hermes that was 3 months ago."

"I know I'm just using that excuse so I don't half to deliver any packages." he confessed rubbing his arm, "What are you doing out here any way aren't you on lock down or something."

"I got bored."

"Wait let me guess, you climb out the window, met a mortal and he fell deeply in love with you."

"No, w-well y-yeah." I clutched my DS as my cheek began to burn

"Aw that's how that fan-fiction I read went, except he turn totally evil in the end and there was all this-." he pouted

"Your weird."

"Your the weird one, how can you stand this cold weather?"

"Don't tell Apollo but I only hang out with him for his above average body heat."

"Don't we all." he began nudging me toward the exit

"Did Hera find out I left?" I asked

"No, not yet but I would get up there if I were you, that weird nymph is in your room hyperventilating."

We made our way to the elevator and I did the usual task of inserting the key card and hitting the button.

"Hey can I ask you something." said Hermes

"Go ahead."

"Have you seen Apollo lately?"

"I haven't seen him in months, you?"

He stared at the floor as though he was deciding whether or not he should answer the question "Same."

I was about to ask him another question, but was stopped when his cellphone began buzzing in his pocket. "Hello?" he answered, a grave look crossed his face. He hung up and I watched as his cell slow turned into a revolver. "Get your sword out," He told me "somethings wrong."

[1] "But V Central park and the Empire State Building are no where near each other!" Well... MAKE BELIEVE

[2] -Eyebrow wiggle-


	8. The Old End

The elevator door slid open and I immediately felt a difference in the atmosphere. The usual happy, bright Olympus I knew, was replaced with a dark, cloudy, gray atmosphere. There was no sign of the life and the world seem to fall silent. I uncapped Riptide and Hermes and I quickly moved across the bridge, "It's so empty," I said quietly " It's like everyone left."

"Their here alright." answered Hermes

I began to doubt him, but then we got to the Aroga, the place was a complete horror bodies lied everywhere, and I couldn't tell if they were dead or unconscious. "What are we looking for?" I asked, stepping over a nymph's body

"Apollo and Artemis should be somewhere around here I think."

"What about the rest of the gods? "

Hermes began to answer but stopped short when we saw a nymph in the distance, "Careful" he warned

Instantly she charged at us, a piece of glass in her hand and blind rage in her...black eyes, just like Sugar's. Without hesitation, my sword cut right through her chest, she dropped to her knees, gasping for air, but instead of just keeling over, a tornado of black smoke blasted from her mouth into the air. We watched as the smoke retreated towards the god's palace. We took off, I didn't dare look back at the body, the smoke leads us straight to Artemis and Apollo, but also a whole swarm of them.

By the deep cuts and scratches on Apollo and Artemis I could tell that they have fought a lot of them all ready. We fought for hours and for my first actual fight, I was doing pretty good, but I was getting tired, ever time I would knock one down and was moving on to the next they would just get up again, they treated a stab to the chest like a bruise from a fall. Artemis suddenly gave us an order us to retreat, as a way to slow them down Apollo fired an arrow into the swarm, it exploded into a hot, bright light that I knew better to look at or my eyes would probably melt.

We quickly retreated to the garden, Artemis pulled the large, heavy, metal gates closed and I used water from a nearby pond to create some kind of ice lock on it. We join Apollo and Hermes, panting "Did you see that?" said Apollo "They just will take a beating like it was nothing."

"What the hell is going on with all of them?" said Hermes 

I watched the group, they interacted with each other like regular people; one even flipped me off and I don't think ancient greek monsters do that.

A satyr pointed up to a enormous column that loomed over us from outside the gates. He limped over, he stopped half way and looked down at is twisted and gnarled leg. A blast of black smoke came pouring out of his body and entered the body of a centaur through it's airways, the centaur stood up, "Their like a parasite." I said "Their just using the bodies like a shield." The next scene happened so quickly I barely had time to think.

The centaur began calling orders to the others, groups of them began rushing forward with jars, "Their going to bomb us." said Artemis, we took off running again in the direction of the palace. The explosion went off and green fire swept through garden burning everything, I made the mistake of looking behind me, my eyes caught sight of the centaur, using his powerful hind legs to kick over the now weak column, then everything went dark.

Apollo's Pov.

We took cover as debris scattered everywhere through the air, "Apollo!" Artemis cried she pointed over to where the column had fallen over, and a dark trail of blood that led to Percy. Nervously I swallowed, "Get to the palace," I told them. "What about them?" Hermes yelled.

"I'm right behind you, just take Artems and go."i

Hermes nod and took Artemis by the wrist , he took a step and in a flash they were gone. Quickly I scooped up Percy's body and thank whoever I was suppose to thank that he was still breathing, and had only a few scratches and bruises.

"It's him!" one of the possessed yelled, my blood ran cold

"Where?!" yelled another, her eyes were completed burned out of his sockets, probably because of one of the light arrows I shot earlier.

"There! "

The second possessed grunted in annoyance, a blast of black smoke exploded from her mouth and vanish somewhere in the air. I decided that I should start moving, the mob was beginning to climb over the partly broken gate. I turned and began running, I cursed myself for not being able to run as fast as Hermes, and being too weak at the moment to teleport, even with energy, teleporting with another person would be more than exhausting.

I weaved in and out between the trees, the swarm at my heels, I was tired, but I used my rage toward my father and the other gods as fuel.

Only a few hours ago, my father had accused Percy of being the reason for the death that have been occurring.

" I want him dead!" he thundered "I don't want to him to be seen or spoken of again!"

I tried pleading with him, "Father," I said " He's just a boy how could he have anything to do with those deaths."

"Every victim that survived, said their attacker was searching for a small boy, the dark energy its all connected to him."

"It's not him." I argued

"WE ALL KNOW ITS HIM." he boomed, " I left you in charge of him, either get rid of him or strip yourself of your godly powers."

"So be it." I answered

Zeus kept a steer face but I could tell He didn't expect my answer, "Anyone else?" he said.

Just then Athena came bursting in; spear in hand, "Father they've evacuated, we need to move now."

I stood there and watched as my sibling and my father turned their backs on me, I felt a hand on my shoulder I turned and found Artemis and Hermes next to me. 

"Hermes just sent a message to Poseidon, he wants us to get Percy and bring him to Atlantis, we can get there with sun char-" We all jumped when we hear a blood curdling scream.

"I'll go." Hermes volunteered, his voice was slightly shaky, he began toward the door

I spoke up "Hermes," he stopped and looked at me "Don't let him know. "

He nodded and took off, I thought it would be easy and we would just be able to grab Percy and go, but Artemis and I made the mistake of leaving the palace, and within seconds we were in deep trouble. 

I ran at full speed till I was fully through the double doors of the palace. Artemis and Hermes struggled to close and lock the doors, but even that wasn't enough the mob screamed,scratch and pounded at the doors, just before it busted open; Hermes and Artemis quickly held it close. "We need a plan." Hermes grunted

Percy suddenly shifted from out of my arms, he held his head and stumbled a bit, "Apollo." he began "We need to get to my room."

"What we can't just leave them here!"

"And we can't leave the door or they'll get in!" said Hermes

"I know a way to get rid of them-all of them, but we need to get to my room."

"Just go with him Apollo, we'll be fine." I could tell from Artemis's eyes that she was trying not to show doubt

Percy tugged at my sleeve, his eyes pleaded "Just trust me alright?"

"Apollo hurry go!" Artemis said, they struggled even more

I was brought back to my sense, and took one last look at them and we left Hermes and Artemis and sprinted off down the hallway. I could only hope they'll be okay and that I made the right choice.

We got into Percy's room and in a panic like state he closed and locked the door. His eyes darted around the room and rested on his bed.

"What are you doing, Percy." I felt a bit annoyed that we basically left Hermes and Artemis to fade and were just standing here

He didn't answer me, instead he briskly walked over to his bed and began removing the pillows, I partly caught sight of an object, but Percy recovered it with a pillow. He then just stood there like he was in a trance, his face became pale.

"Percy?" he turned to me finally

"I need time. "

"What do you mean, what about Artemis and Hermes. "

"They'll be fine," he began breathing heavily "I-I just need time. "

"We can't forget about them, we have to go back." I began for the door but Percy grab my arm, his grip was extremely tight around my arm

"I promise you that whatever happened today will all be gone, but I need you to trust me and give me some time, please Apollo." Slowly I released the doorknob, and he let go of my arm, "I just need you talk to me, you know...like we usually do."

I nodded to the bed "What is that about?"

"I'll tell you about that soon," he started setting the timer on his watch " We have half an hour."

I sat on the floor, leaning against the wall with Percy in my lap, his body facing me, and we I did just ask as he asked. We talked like there was no problem at hand, I answered all his questions, Percy leaned his head against my chest, we then sat in silence for a moment I forgot the situation we were in.

After a good amount of time Percy's watch beeped and he immediately stood and walked over to his bed, he gripped the pillow but didn't remove it.

"Apollo," he began " I've been having these dreams, they actually seem more like tests, they would occur often, about every night and there was always-," he stopped and hesitated "When I passed out before I had another dream, but it was different it was dark like the other dreams, but this time there was this girl there," he let out a slight chuckle " I just can't seem to remember her face and it was so dark, every time do I just remember a smile." Percy removed the pillow and picked up the object, it was a rectangular wooden box, scratched in on the top was a star with a circle surrounding it and in between the points were more strange symbol that I've never seen before.

"She told me about this," he continued "I can fix everything right now." He brought the box over to me and sat down next to me, "She told me something like this requires a large amount of blood, but I figured out a loophole.

My heart pounded, the way he spoke, this wasn't the same boy I found in Central Park.

"Blood?" I repeated

"I figured out another way, I can't explain too much, but I can substitute blood for memories from others and I can kinds of rest."

"Before I found you..."

Percy took a breath, "Thank you Apollo."

"And if your're using memories from others that means I won't remember you, will I?"

"Apollo I'm way different from the average demigod, I can do things I don't think even the gods can do."

"Reset?" I said " Would that mean that Gabe..."

"Maybe, maybe not, there billion possibilities and outcomes."

"Percy-" I had made a promise to him

"Apollo, she told me I only had half a hour."

"What do we have to do then?"

Percy removed his pen from his pocket and uncapped his sword and the blade grew, he pressed his hand against the blade and quickly ran it across, blood oozed from his palm.

" Just small bit from me is needed." he, smeared his blood on the cover of the box across the symbol and rest hand on top prepared to open it. "Apollo if somehow we do meet again, you can't remind me of this, any of this."

"What..."

"She told me."

"How do you know you can even trust this girl?"

He smiled, " I just had this connection with her."

The smile slipped from his face, he looked me in eyes, I caught the familiar glowing blaze in his eyes.

"Goodbye Apollo."

I brought him in close and pressed my lips to his forehead, I heard the box creek open, and everything faded into a white light.

Including him.

[To be continued]


	9. The New Beginning

I blame Artemis for this, if it wasn't for her,and Aphrodite overreacting to a small joke we wouldn't be in this mess. One second Hermes and I are having a good laugh and the next, Artemis and I are having a decent "chat", well more like a scream fest.we

Okay we were pounding the shit out of each other, I don't know how long our fight would have lasted, probably for hours if our, father didn't intervene.  
He angry shooed the crowd of Olympians away and start his long speech, basically he said " If you're going to act like children, I'll treat you like children." and assigned his level 14 probation.

I parked the car and one by one we hopped out, I stopped to check my battered face in the rear-view mirror, I had to admit Artemis did get a couple of good hits in, the whole right side of my face was covered in a dark bruises, I rubbed my hand against the bruise and it slowly began to fade away. Artemis slammed the car door closed.

"This is all your fault." she fumed

"Mhm" I answered, still idly checking myself out in the mirror "Just get over here so I can fix you up. "

Artemis began down the hill towards the thick, dense bush of trees, "Where are you going there expecting us? " Hermes called out

Artemis turned to us "I'm going to call one of my hunters, so I don't have to spend time with you idiots and Miss Beauty queen over there. "

"Find by me, " I answered " no one wants you around anyway ."

Artemis gave us one more look as she stormed down the hill.

"Let's get going." Hermes sighed

Aphrodite looked at steep hill, muddy hill in disgust "Ew, you expect me to climb that, I'm flashing there. "

"Come on." I whined

"Well do one of you want to carry there then?"

We didn't say anything

"Exactly." and with that she left

"Hold on" I said, I returned to my car and stuck the key into the ignition and turned in the opposite direction to turn the car on, there was a faint click and three beeps. I stepped out of the car again and closed the door. The car faded into a powerful light that shrunk until it was completely gone ,leaving nothing but my car key, which I scooped up from the ground and shoved into my pocket.

"What's that?" asked Hermes

"Auto-pilot, it'll be back when we're suppose to return to Olympus."

"Why do you and Artemis get all the cool stuff and I get-" I heard a faint hissing sound from Hermes's pocket, and their was an annoyed look on his face

Hermes and I began to climb the hill. When we neared the top we spotted a group of demi-gods stood just outside the gates, three of them, a dark hair boy, and Hermes's twin sons were the in a tree, while a blonde, gray eye girl, and a tall blonde boy, with a heavy scar across his face (which I knew was Luke) and a small , dark hair, blue eye boy stood in front of the gates arguing.

The blonde girl looked up when we got to the top of the hill, but Luke and the other boy continued to bicker.

"What are you talking about, " Luke said "Monsters never get this close to the gates, and new campers were attacked and nearly mauled, how was that "No big deal?". "

"Hey, I never said that, I only said that they seemed a little out of it and maybe it's just nothing."

"Are you kidding me. "

"Come on Luke look at the facts, a human with black smoke and eyes? Do we know any monster like that?"

"He has a point. " said the blonde girl

"Don't go taking his side Annabeth."

"Look, I have a tour to run. " she pushed the boys apart and stepped toward us.

"Aren't you suppose to be doing that too, Percy ?" Luke asked

"I'd love to but I have to go take care of Nico." Percy answered

"What are you talking about. " furrowed her eyebrows Annabeth "Nico's fine"

Percy looked up at the dark haired boy in the tree. "Oh" he said

He then picked up a stone and hurled it at Nico, there was a faint crack as it made contact with the back of his knee. Nico lost his balance and crashed into the bushes below.

"Son of a-" Luke held his head and closed his eyes, "You gotta be kidding me." he muttered as he rubbed his temples

Percy walked passed us in the opposite direction of Nico avoiding eye contact and started down the hill "Where are you going we have a job to do nimrod." Annabeth yelled

"I'm going.." Percy didn't finish his sentence he lazily held up his hand and pointed down the hill. Annabeth turnned to us, her face was flushed. "I'm sorry for the wait, we'll begin now. " 

As we reached the gates I began thinking about how long and boring this tour will probably be, so I decided to speak up, "Annabeth it's okay, there's really no need for the tour we can find our way around ourselves." I said

"Pff, find by me." she said immediately returning to her post, her tone was between a "Oh thank gods." and a "I don't give a fuck what you guys do."

I turned to Hermes "Wanna come with me?" 

Hermes looked over at Luke, who was sitting at the base of a tree still rubbing his head, " Sure why not?" He said quietly 

We wandered around for a few hours, it was early so most campers were still asleep and the place was completely silent, after an hour or so of walking around in silence we slowly began making our way back to the gates, Hermes decided to break the silence. 

"Don't you think that dark hair boy looks...familiar?"

"What? You mean the one that fell out of the tree?" I gave him a weird look

"No! The one that was arguing with Luke."

"Oh, that kid? I've never seen him before."

Hermes frowned "Are you sure, I just feel like I've seen him somewhere..."

"Maybe he looks like someone you know?"

"Maybe..."

The conversation left me with a mild headache, which was strange because I usually didn't get those, Annabeth stood by gates rubbing her arm, she looked slightly nervous. "Any news?" I asked her

"I went looking for Percy, but I couldn't find him."

"He's probably fine." Hermes assured her

"Yeah, that's what Luke said.."

Suddenly, as if on cue Percy came up the hill, he motion for Luke and Annabeth to come forward, they gather around him, and began whispering. What did he find?

I sudden wave of pure pain hit me, my head began to pound, and it felt like the side of my head was being split open by someone with an ax. Ever thing became spinning and I found myself having to lean again a tree for support.

The pain gradually subsided and as it did, all these new memories that I knew were old came to me.

And they were all about him, Percy.

I remember finding him in Central Park, I remember taking him to Olympias, and him growing up. 

Another wave of pain hit me and I felt like I was going to vomit. I put a hand over my mouth. It didn't make sense, I wasn't making false memories, that happened,  
but at the same time it was like it never did. A new memory came to me, when Olympias was invaded, and half a hour we were together in his room, the box and that bright light. What was in that box?

I felt something wet on my hand, I pulled my hand from my mouth and found inchor on my fingertips. My nose was bleeding.

I look over at Hermes and by the ichor, I could tell he was having the same problem. 

"Hermes." I called, I wiped the excess inchor off on the back of my hand

Hermes staggered over to me, "You remember...too? Like it's not just me?"

I nodded, trying to gulp down the pain.

"But it doesn't make sense, it's..."

I held my head "I know it's confusing, but that happen."

"And he's completely different now, have you noticed? Other Percy barely would talk and thus one is so bold. "

"I know." I closed my eyes and try to clear my head

"And last time we've seen him, he was only 10 years old and now suddenly he's 12?"

"I'm pretty sure he's 14." said a voice, we turned a found Artemis standing behind us "Oh great," I said bitterly "Its you. "

"I want to find out as badly as you about what's going on, so how about a truce just for now."

I stared at her for a couple seconds, "Truce," I finally said, "just for now." We shook hands and her cuts and brusies began clearing up.

"Do you you think we should go and talk to him?" Hermes asked

A switch went off in my brain "No." I said immediately

Artemis gave me a confused look,"What do you mean 'No'? isn't that the logical thing to do?

I explained to them the whole deal with the warning that Percy told me, the box and the whole deal with our once missing memory deal.

"What happens if he does remember?" Artemis asked

"I don't know." I sighed, it then caught my attention that Annabeth, Luke, Nico, Percy, and some unimportant character were at the bottom of the hill and heading up the road. 

I began to follow, Hermes and Artemis tagged along, not too far down Percy led the group into the dense forest brush, when we popped out on the other side, we were standing in a clearing with a eerie looking small gray shack sitting in the middle of it. "How did you find this place?" Nico asked

"I followed him in here."

"In here? You just left him?What if he's already gone?"

Percy didn't answer Annabeth's questions, he gently pushed on the shack's rusty hinged door, it opened with a slight creak. A man around 18 stood in the middle of a carpet. 'Well," he said with a smile there was a faint, almost inaudible click sound and his eyes became pure black, my head began throbbing slightly again "We'll be fine." Percy muttered "Just be careful not to step on the carpet." 

"What's wrong with the carpet?" Annabeth questioned again

"I don't know he just won't move from it."

"You know I find it very rude that you guy are talking about me while I'm right here." the stranger said

We all crowded into the shack, and for the next 2 hours Luke, Annabeth, and Nico repeatedly questioned him, but he was cocky and wouldn't answer the questions straight.

"Who are you?" Luke asked

"I am me and you are you, isn't that obvious?" he said

"Your name smart ass."

"Well his name is Anthony."

"You mean your name?" Nico said

"No, him this guy." Anthony pointed to himself,

"He's bullshitting," Percy said "just tell us why you were after those campers."

"Oh that wasn't me that was my friend, he can be-"

"Your stalling." Percy said his voice was becoming annoyed "Just tell them what you."

Anthony looked at Percy, his eyebrows furrowed, but then a slow smile crept across his face "Oh.." Anthony bit his lip and laughed "I never knew Demi- god were so dense to the rest of the creature in the world." No one said anything "Look I'm obviously not going anywhere soon so, I'll tell a little of what I know." From the corner of my eye I saw Percy awkwardly moving his leg causing the carpet to scrunch under his foot. " To be honest, I don't know why we're here either."

"We're."said Nico "How many are of you?"

Anthony tilted his head from side to side before answering "Enough, " he said finally " More than I can count."

"What are you guys all doing up here." Percy spoke up

Again Anthony laughed his eyes clicked to black, "We were told of someone, to lead us."

"Who?" Luke asked

"Black blood mixes and runs in him."

"Answer us." Annabeth growled "Who are you talking about?" Again in the corner of my eye Percy's leg again shifted moving the carpet again, and for a split second he made eye contact with me for the first time today.

"He bears the mark of when his wings were ripped out and his soul was put in."

"We're barely getting anywhere." Nico said

"Well I think you guys heard enough, can't tell you everything that'll be way too easy." Sudden Anthony's looked up and a tornado of black smoke blasted out of his mouth the door swung open and the smoke violently flew out. Anthony's collapse to the ground.

Annabeth bent down an checked for a pulse, "He's..still alive" her voice lacked enthusiasm, after talking it over the group decided to take Anthony and carry him down the road further away from camp and let him make up his own story on what happened.

"What now?" asked Percy, carelessly dropping Anthony's legs

We started our way back to camp, the sun was high in the sky by now meaning noon was around the corner and we could leave soon.

Luke clapped Percy on the shoulder, "Well isn't it obvious? We tell Chiron about our little strange, and out of the ordinary event, and then I get to fill out tons of paperwork for future references..fun"

Hermes and I stayed behind as the campers disappear, when Artemis began walking past me I grabbed her wrist. "What's the problem?" 

"I need to just to check something." they followed me up the road, and through the brush, I approach the shack and pushed open the door. I walked over to where Percy stood.

Artemis touched my hand "What is this about?" 

"He knows something."

"Oh great," Hermes said behind me "He's getting all obsessed." 

"I'm not obsessed." I defended "Just concerned." I peeled back the carpet, bit by bit red paint began to show up, underneath the carpet was a large circle symbol with a pentagon in the center, with strange writing in between the points painted in slightly fresh red paint. The circle was broken on the side Percy had stood. 

I knelt down, "I've never seen a symbol like this." 

"Maybe there is something weird about that boy after all." Hermes admitted examining the sign, I stood.

"What do we do, it obvious what even happen was just the beginning."

"I think it would be best we maybe stick close to Percy and the others, I curious about what these things are, and if we don't know anything about them, that means the other gods don't, so Percy's our best bet." 

"You'd like that wouldn't you Apollo?" Hermes teased, I felt my face become warm

When the time came to return home, my sun car appeared outside the shack, but Aphrodite was still missing. Neither one of us wanted to make the climb so after 13 rounds or rock, paper, scissors. Me and Hermes made the climb, I spotted Annabeth, and the others talking to Chiron, They all had shed their coat, and hoodie that they wore for the morning cold, except for Percy, who still was wearing a black a white hoodie, I wondered how he could bear the heat.

A new idea forces its way from the back of my mind, my heart began to race, "Hermes," I whispered " It's kinda like the past we remember never happened."

"Right."

"So if it never happened," I turned to him

"Do you think Percy still lives with Gabe then?"


	10. It's a Routine

The sky was a soft light blue as the sun peeked over the horizon. Ever since they demolished the building in front of my window, I had a clear view of city right out to the water, if you were to take the time to look you could see the empire state building. A couple rays broke through the glass and touched my face. I flipped over on to my other side, my eyes caught one of my only possessions of the room. A digital clock that plugged into the wall. The clock that I woke up to check every two hours, on the hour so I won't miss school. The red numbers read 5:59am. I shifted trying to get comfortable on my flimsy floor mattress. I felt a sharp pain in my side and bolted up right. Time to start the day.

I crawled off my "bed" across the cold rough wooden floor to the door just halfway to the base was a hole, stuffed with paper just big enough so I could peer through and see to the living room. I unstuffed it and peeked through, from here I could see a large lump passed out in the couch in front of the TV. I waited a couple minutes to make sure he was actually asleep, once I was fully sure I forced myself to stand and went to were I kept my shoes and clothes, I gather them in my arms and went back to the door and placed my hand on the knob, I inhaled deeply hopping that Gabe remembered to keep the door unlocked this twisted the knob, I felt a bit of hope course through me when I was able to open the door and slip into the bathroom, I shut the door and flicked on the lights and flicked on the light. I stared into the mirror, trying to decode the face that staring at me, he was my age and my small height. He had what my mom called "brilliant blue-green eyes." , my messy tangled black hair, and he was covered head to toe in cuts, discolored bruises, blood streaked his white tshirt and shorts. This isn't the Percy Jackson I know.

I stripped my clothes and grabbed a rag and some soap,the tub was already filled from the night before, and it will stay filled on till tomorrow, Saturday when Gabe goes next door to drink and play cards with his friends. I wasn't afraid of him finding out, I haven't seen him even enter the bathroom before. The water was cold, but I didn't find it to be a problem, I stuck my hand into the tub and held it there, I slowly felt the water heat up. I dipped the rag into the tub and and rubbed the rag all over my body, making sure to clean any new cuts I found, next I rung the rag out in the sink, to avoid getting the water dirty and the lathered my body with soap and then rinsed myself off. I repeated the steps a couple times until I felt clean. Slipping on my clothes and opened the draw, that contained my mothers make up supply, and opened what I learned is concealer and foundation. After dabbing and rubbing the items on the parts of my body that my clothes didn't cover my wounded, I again stared into the mirror. The boy in the mirror was now trying to smile, but every time he would try it would fall off his face, like his heart was a heavy weight and was pulling it down. "We'll work on it later I whispered. I left the bathroom and returned to my "room", I slipped on my hoodie, plucked up my backpack and slipped, my pen into my pocket. I plopped my cap on to my head and through open that led to the fire escape. A brisk cold wind full awaken me, and the sounds of the city filled my ears. I closed the window, leaving a little bit of a gap so when I got home I had enough space to fit my fingers underneath and lift the window. 

I climbed down the ladder and dropped below, even this early people hussled and bussled around, honking horns and talking into their phones. Watching the sidewalk I walked next door to a small convenient store known as Rich's. It was early so he Rich, my neighbor hadn't even come down yet to open up shop. I entered the ally between my apartment and the store and stood looking up at the fire escape. Just as I was about to climb it, I heard panting behind me, I saw a furry familiar face. It was the dog that was always lurking around back here, he greeted my by licking my hand and then sitting waiting for his scratch behind the ear reward.

Gently I stroked the top of his head and started my ascend up the ladder, the roof was where Rich kept his small roof top garden and their was door that he kept unlock that he lead down stairs into the store. I made sure to stop at the fuse box and cut the power, so the cameras wouldn't catch me, and quickly opened the door and hurried down stairs, I would have to be in and out so that I wouldn't miss my train.

The inside was dark and desolate the only light source came from the windows at the front of the store, opening my bag I approached the cash register, I gently lifted the register and pulled release button and the draw popped out. I took about $30 and $5.00 for myself.

Just as I closed the register I heard heavy panting behind me, my stomach drop. I wheeled around, the knot loosed when I found the dog that was from before, standing behind me his tail happily wagging. I moved to into one of the isles, stocking up on kit kat bars, I paused to quickly open up a bag of beef jerky and removed a couple strips for him. Happily he began to munch on it. I checked the clock on the wall. 7:30.

I will take me 10mins to get to the platform from here, and another 10min for the train to come. I decided to get moving now, I wasn't worried about leaving the dog here, If was smart enough to get in he was smart enough to get out. I rushed up the stairs,outside and back to my apartment. Inside my room, I opened my door that led out to the hallway. I picked up rubber band from the top of my dresser and used it to pin my $30 rent to the outside door knob. 

Again I reclosed the door and and slipped out the window, lowered it, and I made my way up two blocks, with the New York crowd of people. The sun was now higher in the sky, but judging by the clouds it won't be out long.

Because the was the season when tourist usually come to visit, it took me 20mins instead of 10mins to get to the platform, and by the time I got there the train was already there and I quickly hopped on. Surprisingly the train cart wasn't packed, I chose a seat next to the door. 

Instantly a wave of drowsiness washed over me. Two stops down the doors slid open, and a large crowd of people entered, among them was a blonde haired boy, he jumped up and grabbed the railing above me and climbed across on them like they were monkey bars until he was over the seat that was next to me, then dropped down. He slapped my shoulder and I jolted awake due to a sharp pain in my side."Morning" Dean said 

"Mhm," I said using my bag as a pillow

"Dude wake up I have an emergency."

"Did Beyonce die?"

"Worst I need the global homework."

I unzipped my backpack, "That's not an emergency, but I do pity you." I handed him the papers

I've known Dean my whole life, he was a foster kid that seem to always be jumping family to family, we met around 1st grade and no matter how many time I had to switch schools he always managed to to get transferred there, mostly because of a spit handshake pact (not blood pact, I refused to do that shit) that we made in 5th grade that we would stay together. Cheesy, but I actually do enjoy having him around.

Three stops later, we got off the train and walked up the steps, outside we popped right out in front of the school, a couple students trudge into the building, most hung around the outside because it was still very early "See, I told this train is fast than the 5th avenue." Dean said, coming up behind me. 

"Let it go man." I said, he smiled and continued walked on ahead of me. 

I again saw the odd boy that was in my bathroom mirror, this time he was in the reflection of the polished granite stone that the school's name was engraved into. Again he painfully pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile. This time it stayed on, it was pain full and very heavy but this time it didn't fall off.

This was the face everyone knew, he was always smiling, making jokes. He wasn't broken at all.


	11. Who Invented School?

[A/N: I preferred that you didn't read the chapter]

"Why are they here?!" Percy said to Annabeth while making random hand gestures at us

"Well nice to see you too." Hermes said offended

Father, was still was very annoyed with our existence entirely, and extended our probation. Now we have to attend mortal high school (shiver), but this wasn't totally a bad thing, we were able to watch Percy and the quest easier, without suspicion.

We sat on the steps of the school, while Annabeth and Percy sat on the stone railing whispering/yelling at each other.

"St. Paul's boarding school for the gifted special educated." I turned to Annabeth "You go to a Catholic school?"

"They think the faith will be therapeutic and calm our horny little minds."

This was the first thing Percy said to us since we've first seen him at camp, but he still refused to make eye contact with us. After making his statement, the demigods's faces turned bright red 

5 demigods in the same school at once isn't a bright idea." Artemis said 

"Its only temporary we solve what happen during the summer, and Chiron thinks that with the gods around will kinda wander monsters off ." Artemis's hunter, Thalia answered, Artemis had brought her as company. 

"Will the mist be strong enough to hide you all from the mortals?" Nico spoke up 

"Are you kidding, of course it will!" Hermes said, to prove this Hermes knock a doughnut [1] out of the hands of a young boy who approached the group, "Damn it." he said looking depressingly at his now floornut 

"Wait where's Luke?" said Percy looking up

"I'm pretty sure I saw him upstairs." said the blonde boy who was now dounut less 

"The library?" ask Percy

"Probably." he said miserably 

Annabeth exchanged looks with Percy, immediately they began gathering their stuff, and moving up the steps 

"Really?" said the boy, going up the first couple of steps "You guys always do this, what's with you guys always having to go to the library, we haven't even gotten our winter break homework yet, what could you all possibly be doing in there? "

"Work." said Thalia hopping up the steps

"Does it have to do with that camp." 

They all stopped and looked back, "What are you talking about Dean?" Percy said

"I hear you talk about all the time." 

"If you must know," Percy bit his lip, "We're doing hours outside of school to help build an acting camp, the theme's mystery this year,and we're looking at books so we can give the counsels ideas. 

Dean stared into Percy's eyes, he took a step down nodding slightly "Oh." 

"Go find Simrin man, I think she's back from Nevada."

Nico tugged on Percy's sleeve "Come on the bell's gonna ring." 

We togther made our way up the tall marble steps into to the school, leaving Dean by himself

[12:00pm]

"Math, Religion ... are we almost done." Hermes whined, his head in my lap as we sat in the large ancient library, unlike normal high school I've seen in New York this one was as big as a college, the campus held dormitories as big as a 4 story apartment in the back and a middle school sat next door. We sat in between the shelves, students quietly studied or idly talking between each other, "We have three more periods and then we're free brother." I responded, he let out a groan.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Aphrodite around." 

"You know her." said Artemis "She's probably interloping with some freshman boy or meddling in someones love life ."

Hermes turned his head to look at Luke, Percy, and Annabeth who were sitting on the floor ," What's the point of this class again?" 

"It's study hall, a free period." 

"Is the point of the class to freeze you ass off?" I said bitterly " Couldn't they have closed the windows?"

"We won't be in here for to long." Percy assured me

Annabeth suddenly gasped, she had been silent through out the whole period , violently she pulled Percy from where he sat in the over to her laptop, she pointed at the screen. The Luke took notice and crawled over to her.

"I think I may have found something." she had a smile on her face, her gray eyes blazing " This article takes about these group of children, and there described as having black eyes. "

Luke nodded, "But no black smoke was mentioned, but were closer than we were before."

"And that guy we found was like 20, and I don't see anything on here about an ass hole personality." Percy scrolled through the article smirking "Sounds more like a children of the corn thing." 

An annoyed glare replaced Annabeth's blaze, "I haven't seen or hear you contribute to the quest." 

"I've help!" 

"Leaving your cabin lights on all night isn't fooling anyone into thinking you've been up researching."

Percy pulled over Annabeth's laptop and began typing in the URL box, he hit enter and then plopped the laptop back in her lap.

"BelieveInTheSupernatural.net," she read "really, Perseus?"

"Well we already went through all the Greek myths and not one monster even begins to touch what we saw, so maybe should look at something more..modern and out of the box."

Annabeth pressed her lips together and adjusted her uniform, "Well there is one more thing." she opened a new tab

"Demon?" Luke read 

"It matches really well, but somethings don't match up like.." she scrolled and found a picture of a horned man with a tail, hooves, and holding a pitchfork." Demons are known to live in hell, but we know hell is actually the Underworld,and if they were creatures like this down there we would know and we won't be having this problem."

Percy's face paled as he stared at the computer in disgust "Is that suppose to be what they look like."

"Problem?" Luke asked 

"Not at all." He murmured 

Luke stared at the laptop " Christmas break starts tomorrow I think we should all meet at camp and we'll make a plan with Chiron, agreed?"

"Perfect," said Annabeth 

Percy looked at the floor, he nervously rubbed his nose on his sleeve "Sure."

The bell rung, the students gathered there belongings, Luke departed from us, and we followed Percy and Annabeth down the corridor, a group of students waited in the hall for the classroom to open, Annabeth joined the line, by her body language she was still obviously steamed with Percy and she moved to front and started up a conversation with a couple of girls. Percy stood silently clutching his backpack.

"Have you?" I heard him mumble, I looked down at him, he still refuse to look at me

"Say something kiddo?" I asked

This time he turned his head in my direction, "Have you ever seen a monster like this one before?"

I bite my lip, and looked away "No" I said 

[5th period: English]

"Why was Romeo so depressed?" said Mr.James 

"He wanted Rosaline ope her lap and accept Romeo's golden pe-"

"Thank you Percy." said Mr.James smiled as he pitched the bridge of his nose, the class giggled 

"Okay enough of that story." the teacher said flipping through the text book "What other story do you guys want to go over." students began chatting with the teacher and I turned my attention back to Percy 

A fit girl with very long brown hair held in a ponytail, and brown eyes sitting in a desk on Percy's left side, begin furiously smelling her student ID that hung around her neck,"Simrin[2]," Percy held back a laugh "What are you doing." he whispered 

"My ID smells like weed[3]." again they broke out into a fit of silent laughter, I caught Annabeth staring bitterly at the two

Hermes, who was staring out the window the whole time suddenly shot up "That's the smell."

"What?" Artemis and I said in unison 

There a blaring screech coming from the hallway "A fire drill, again?" said Mr. James "Alright everyone QUIETLY filed out the door." The students picked up there belongs and filed out the door, the hallway's air felt thick as we made out way through. Outside found us Luke and Thalia, their eyes were red and they seemed dazed, I felt the same way to.

Thalia giggled, "This was the best prank ever."

"What happened." asked Percy rubbing his eyes

"Someone stuffed like truck load of meth and a bunch of other stuff in the vents, and when the heat went on it started burning." she explain

"That sounds unrealistic." Annabeth said

"The point is we got let out early, someone just need to get Nico from the middle school and get to camp."

"I have to go home." said Percy

"Your kidding," said Luke "Are you even interesting in doing the quest?" 

Percy began heading for the subway "Goodbye Luke."

"What's wrong with him." Annabeth muttered

[P3Rcy P0V]

The police rushed pass me as got to the subway entrance, I could feel Annabeth, Luke, the gods and Thalia watching me as I descended down below, I quickly bought my ticket and made my way to the platform, I sat down a bench. There was no way would be able to make it to camp and make it back within Gabe's time limit, they will just have to go on with out me. My mind flashed through the strange day I had, why couldn't the gods stayed were they belong, and this whole quest is fucking stupid.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned my head and saw Dean, "Can we talk?"

I moved my backpack so he could sit down, "About what?"

"Just talk." he answered "Remember when we were kids and we did that spit pact thing?"

"What about it?"

He pulled a pen knife from his jacket, I stood up "No way man."

"Come on nothings going to happen." 

"What is this even about."

"I just need to know that were still friends."

"Of course we are."

"Then prove it." Dean opened the knife and ran it across his palm, then held out out to me, I gripped the knife in my hand and pressed the blade again my hand, Dean watched closely. I quickly ran my hand again the metal and red liquid sprang to the surface. he grabbed my hand awkwardly, we were both left handed and without thinking we both had cut the same hand.

[Apollo Pov]

Right after the children went their separate ways, the sun chariot appeared and so did Aphrodite, she pulled me aside "Well, how are you and that kid doing?" she asked me 

"Where have you been?" I asked 

"Around... "she fixed her hair, and makeup,"Are you going to go after the little godling?" 

"What are talking about?"

"You know the tiny godling boy, your obsessed with. " 

I didn't know she was actually paying attention the last couple of months "What about him?" 

"He's covered in make up." I looked at her 

"Artemis," I tossed her my keys, she caught them and had a confused look 

"What did you tell him?" she angrily pointed at Aphrodite 

"I'm just doing my job."

Artemis pulled me over to her "I know what your going to do."

I shook her off, "Do me a favor and at least count to 10, better yet 100, just don't do anything stupid."

"I'll see you later." and with that I flashed away

[1] Dount or Doughnut?

[2] The character's named after my favorite dancer, I hope she dosen't randomly google her name and some how find this story (especially after that comment she made)

[3] We do that at school a lot


	12. Breaking through the Darkness

I found Percy outside an apartment petting a large dog, and when I say large I mean, compared to Percy it was gigantic to give you an idea it could be able to stand up on it's hind legs and rest it paws on his shoulders and it's head on top of his. It had a pure white coat and I could tell that it was a wolf hybrid.

Percy saw me and stood up, the dog stood protectively at his side, "Can I help you." he said bitterly, I didn't exactly think through what i was going to say to him, I nodded at the large animal " Is he yours?" 

The dog got up and began lumbering down a alley, "Not really." said Percy, we stood there for a couple seconds, snow started to fall. "I need to get going." he began backing up toward the apartment. "You don't need to go in there." I blurted out

Percy, face went pale and his eye slightly widened, " What do you know." 

"Enough, I can help you."

"I can handle myself." he began walking away, I flashed in front of him 

"Knock it off." He growled going around me 

"Why stay here Perseus," I called after him " You just leave and stay at camp, and have this whole thing can be over."

"I can't." he said, I flashed in front of him again

"Why not?" I said

"Because."

"Because why?" 

"Because of my mom." 

I looked stared him, "Where is your mother Percy?"

He rubbed his hands together, "I don't know, but she promised she'd come back, and I can't forgive myself if she comes back and I'm not there."

I stepped to the side to let him pass, Percy looked up at me 

"You can't tell them, Luke, Nico, Annabeth, and Thalia can't know anything about this." 

I nodded 

"Swear?" he said

"I swear."

I watched at Percy climb up the emergency ladder and through a window, I leaned against the wall wonder if I made the correct decision. 

I jumped and retracted my hand when I felt something wet touch it, I looked down found the wolf dog from before, giving me a sad look. I knelt and looked at the red bandana hanging around his neck, on the edge of it the name "Jackel" was printed on it. I scratched him behind the ear and began counting.

[Percy Pov] 

I dropped my backpack on the ground and took off my hoodie, I ran my hand through my hair ready to drop on to my bed, and sleep forever. Literally.

The door flung open and I felt annoy as I whipped around, "Out here." Gabe commanded

I walked pasted him, guarding my face with my hands, I stood in my usual spot in the middle of the living room. Gabe held $30 dollars out in front of him, "What is this?" he said 

"Rent." I mumbled

"Rent?" He repeated "I thought last time we talked we agreed on 50 per week." 

I paled, I don't even remember that, "Where's the rest?" he stepped closer to me, I backed up and shrugged.

"You don't know?" he cornered me between kitchen counter and his body.

Gabe suddenly raised his hand, and I was on the floor, my cheek throbbed, Gabe grabbed my hair and pulled me up. The air was knocked out of me when Gabe knee hit my stomach. It pained me to think that I was able to to take on monster or after monster, but I wasn't able to take on Gabe. He was just too big.

"Maybe I can knock the memory into you." he growled 

My face suddenly met the hard granite counter top, the world spun and a metallic taste filled my mouth, making me feel sick, I didn't want to swallow so I turned my head and let it drip out of my mouth.

Gabe grunted in disgusted " Can't your body fluids inside yourself just once can you, your fucking disgrace."

I turned my head to look at him, "I'm the disgrace, have you seen yourself, your sad fat excuse for a man, you just lazy around here all day. You have no friends at all, your own family probably abandoned you. If it wasn't for my mother, you won't be even able to survive a single day.

"Now why would you say that?" said the voice in my head 

Gabe roared in anger, his face was purple as his meaty hands enclosed around my throat, the air left me, ever now again I felt my head crash against the floor, I struggled to look at Gabe, his beady pig like eyes were filled with fire, he was yelling. My head was buzzing so much that I couldn't hear him. I tried reading his lips, "Stop smiling." he was saying

Smiling? 

Was I?

I was, and I think I was laughing a bit too. I stared at Gabe's face, I was dazed and clinging to the last bit of air in my lungs. Suddenly Gabe's head flicked upward, he grabbed his face and howled in pain. I saw my chance, I crawled out from underneath, him. I coughed and wheezed has the stale apartment air filled my lungs. I have to get out

I pulled myself up using the wall as my aid, and looked at Gabe, he was still hold his face.

"That's the second time..." he panted

"First the knife coming fly across the room, then the mirror." he said " It's all YOU...your.. your a monster...a DEMON!"

There's that goddamn word again, and he's really calling me the monster?

I rubbed my twitching eye as I scanned my environment looking for a exit, our kitchen was just a half kitchen. To my left there was the granite counter top and Gabe's fatty body, between the two was was a slight gap, if I was fast enough, I could slip between them and bolt to the front door, I thought about Gabe catching me, knocking me into the counter, and the corner slamming into my ribs, and shuttered. To my right was a sliding door that led outside to a balcony, with no fire escape on it. Unless Manhattan suddenly decided to flood, there was no way I was able to survive a 6 story drop, just before the sliding door, right next to Gabe was the phone. I have to get it.

Gabe caught me eyeing the phone, " What are you look at?" he took the phone of the hook, "This?" he tossed it to me "Go ahead."

I turned the phone on and Gabe continued to talk, "But of course it will take time for them to get her by the time they get here, I'll make sure this whole apartment is up in smoke, and even if you do survive you'll probably get placed it a home with other freaks like you, never to see your she-beast mother again." 

I hung up the phone and let it drop to the floor, when I looked up again Gabe was in front of me "Just as I thought." again he forced me onto the floor, he forced my left arm to extend and pinned it down. Something in his hand caught my eye, he held it up so I could see it. "Remember this?" he smiled as he spun the knife between his finger "same one you use you voodoo powers on."

He moved the knife to my pinned arm, I felt the tip of the blade touch my wrist, slowly more and more the pressure increased until sharp agonizing pain was being dragged down my wrist. I let out a yell, and Gabe's elbow hit my cheek. The pain seemed to go on for hours and hours, the blade crave deeply into my flesh, it dragged in all different directions up my arm till it reached the inner part of my elbow. He finally released my arm, my finger touch a pool of warm liquid. I felt sick, I watch the ceiling spin above me. Gabe started on my other arm, the cut was much deeper this time. My whole body went numb, "Just let it happen." said the voice 

I closed my eyes, I was tired.

The became suddenly very hot, like I was stand near a fire, Gabe's weight lifted off me. I heard him scream blood murder, his screams became chokes. My stomach churned, his screams became watery, next I heard the strange sound, of liquid splattering against the floor, I felt a couple drops hit my face, I shivered I closed my eyes even tighter. There was a heavy thump, and then foot steps.

I shivered, someone or something thing touched me, I drowsy feeling washed over me, and the pain didn't seem to hurt as much any more.


	13. Hi Mom

Artemis P.O.V

I found my brother in his temple, leaning over the tub that was used for a catching the blood of the animals that were used for sacrifices in the old days. Apollo leaned over the water filled tub, vigorously washing his archery equipment. I knelt down next to him and watch the caked on blood dissolve, turning the water red. Apollo removed his blood soaked shirt and began scrubbing it.

"Well, where have you been?"

He didn't answer

"Your so different now." I said quietly "Just last month , you would be with a group of women and now your biggest priority is that one boy."

He rang out his shirt, and pulled the plug at the bottom of the tub, letting the bloody water, drain out. Pushing up his ray ban sunglasses, and they became a golden circlet.

"Its just ridiculous to know that one person can have the ability to tear someone's word apart," He turned to me "I remember in the past...the other past, when Poseidon, use to secretly visit Sally he took me once because Sally was worried about him. I thought it would be nothing, but at some point I realized he was would look about the room as though there was something there that I just wasn't seeing." 

"Schizophrenia?"

"Does he seem Schizophrenic?"

"After today he seem just downright idiotic."

"Well whatever Percy knows about, Gabe feared." his face pale a little "I have to get going."

" I know you mean well Apollo, but your're scaring me." 

"It's okay, Artemis." he smiled at me " Nothing to worry about, it's over." 

I didn't feel fully at ease, I held out my arms "Awkward twin hug?"

His smile faded "Get away from me freak." 

I wrapped my arms around him anyway, "Let me have this douche bag."

Percy p.o.v

The pain was almost unbearable when I woke up, pain seemed to choke my body, dragging all the air out of my lungs. I held my face and groaned. It was like someone was holding ice to my eye. I shifted, and immediately someone grabbed my leg. 

"Don't move you'll ruin it!"

My eyes popped open, Luke, Nico, Annabeth, and Thalia surrounded the bed I laid in, my eyes darted around the room and I came around to realizing that I was in the Big House infirmary, the beds were all empty, I spotted the moon through the trees outside. I must have been out for a good while. I looked down at my legs, and saw that someone had constructed a large complex house made of cards. I sat up and the cards toppled.

"Aw" they said in unison 

"Idiots" I moaned and laying down

"Said the boy who said 'horny' in front of the gods." Thalia countered I blushed recalling the memory, more heat rose in my face when I started remembering why I was in so much pain, last thing I can clearly remember is screaming, horrible screaming. Apollo, he lied to me He brought me here and now everyone knows. What is with everyone always wanting to butt in and mess with every ones life?

Annabeth touched my arm lightly "That bus accident bus accident really did a number you, are you okay?"

Bus accident? I had to think it over a few times, to make sure my memory was telling me the right thing, I slipped my finger under the bandage that was wrapped tightly around my arm I felt the familiar feeling of an open wound, and wet blood. "A bus accident?" I repeated

"Mhm," Nico confirmed "I never knew you took the bus home."

I refused to let myself look up at them, I cleared my throat "How I get here?"

"A couple satyrs carried you in, I'm not sure how they found you though."

"We know that's not the truth." said the voice " You wish it was an accident, the pain would have been lighter." My head began to spin, and my heart pounded, the memories flooded my mind. I felt sick. 

I took a deep breath, "Do you guys mind, I kind of tired at the moment." 

They gave me me a uncomfortable look, "Are you okay?" asked Luke

"Just fine."

They reluctantly stood up and began to leave, Annabeth stayed behind and began scooping up the card that were left in my lap, she gave me a slight smile. "Be more careful, you scared us." her golden silk hair laid perfectly on her shoulders, her gray eye were soft and they sparkled as she looked at me. I almost forgot to answer her. "I heal quickly, just keep me updated with the mission okay." 

Annabeth left and then it was just me and the walls.

I closed my eyes, I couldn't help but remember Gabe's words, I had the phone in my hand, I had my chance, and I believed Gabe's lie. "That's your problem." the voice did it's job and interfered with my thoughts "You'll trust anyone, you know the truth and you're still so gullible I pity you, slightly." I needed to block out. I changed my thoughts, to something happier. my mother was the first thing that I could think of, I remember her being gentle, and caring. That was all, it's been do long that I could barely recall her face. 

I suddenly got a sensation that I wasn't alone, I looked next to me and I wasn't so surprised when I saw Apollo standing next to me. "You didn't tell them." I said, he looked extremely tired, like a college student before finals. 

"Come on, I'll make this quick." his words were bitter, I wanted to apologize[1] for the way I acted earlier 

I sat up, and a shock shot up my spine, a gasp escaped me, my side felt like my ribs were trying to escape from my inside, Apollo aided me into the seat next to the bed, began removing the bandages. For the first time, I saw the damage Gabe. On my left forearm, "DEMON" was carved in large jagged letters, on my right the beginning of the word "MONSTER" was being carved, but it stopped at the T. The letters were written so clearly, and neatly it was like he had taken his time. I felt Apollo's grip increase pressure, his eyes were dark, I felt slightly afraid, just thinking about what he possibly could of done to Gabe gave me a chill. The letters began to fade away, Monster was fully gone and Demon was beginning to fade.

"Wait, do you think you can leave that one." I said suddenly

Apollo gave me a strange look, but without questioning he released my arm

"I'm sorry I yelled earlier, I was scared." I went on 

He nodded 

"Thank you" I added quietly 

"No problem." Apollo answered me softly "I'll take my leave."

"Actually can you help me with one quick thing?"

Apollo's Pov

Percy explained to me that a couple weeks before, he received a letter on his his kitchen about Sally, but was "interrupted" before he was able to read it.

"I just need to get the letter, and my backpack that's all." 

"Why don't I just go and come back?" I volunteered, not really wanting him to revisit a place filled with bad memories, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. As usual.

There was no getting around it so I gave in and flashed us to the outside apartment, just in front of the alley, immediately I spotted a swarm of police cars, and ambulance cars in front of the building, the road was completely courted off, a small swarm of people stood trying to figure out the what was going on. I held Percy back before he could take another step. 

"That's a lot of people." he noted

"Do me a favor and just wait here."

Percy swallowed and the color left his face as he slightly backed away from me, in the darkness he looked like a ghost "Okay." his words were barely audible. My heart sank, I was hoping if I spent more time near him, it would spark his memory, but that won't happen if he don't even want to come near me. 

Making my way past the police I thanked the mist for keeping my invisible, and cussed it as I contorted my body to avoid touching anyone. I quickly made my way inside and sprinted up the stairs. The world began to spin at the top of the staircase, I had to lean against the railing and steady myself. One of the "wonderful" perks of being grounded is, your only at half half power, in other words I need to take it easy or I'll eventually pass out. 

I slipped into the apartment right behind a cop as he opened the door, inside was just as I left it. A thick gory splattered mess. The window blinds were wide open, welcoming the New York city light to light up the room. A male young cop, joined his comrades over by the kitchen. A camera shutter went off, the man swallowed.

"That's horrible." he said

"Yep, " agreed the female "It's like something out of a horror movie."

"Is that...skin? "

"Yep it seems to belong to a man, overweight, alcoholic...Wanna know the weird part?"

"Tell me."

"We've scoured the place and we haven't found one piece of evidence that even gives a clue to the attacker.”

The man's eyes widened in shock, "Not one?"

"Not one fingerprint, murder weapon, did anyone see a person come in?"

"Well that Sugar girl from downstairs, told one of our officers that a young boy lived here also. "

"And what happened to him?"

"No idea." The paused and looked down at the maimed body, "You don't think a little boy could have skinned a grown adult man?"

"Well you know teenagers today, you don't know what they'll do. "

"Well, the person has done this before, just look at the work."

"Right, I'm going to get a jump on finding out more on the boy, finish look around here and then I'll help you with the rooming the back. "

I dodged the woman as she quickly advance to the door, and began searching through the large pile of mail, careful not to draw too much attention.

A guilty feeling washed over me, because of me, now their going to be searching for Percy. How are they so idiotic? The only really attacker was that pig, I did the world a favor. Mortals like him deserve a slow, painful death, it makes me wonder how they even get to this state.

The pile of letters toppled over the counter and onto the floor, the policeman glanced at the scattered letters, but made no effort to look further into it. I found two letters, the first was a letter from a hospital, to Gabe and the second was an envelope that contained around $30. I'm guessing Percy probably stole it some how.

Next I went into Percy's so called room, more men were in the room collecting samples. I followed the directions Percy gave me before hand and went straight to his closet, and slowly opened. One of the men looked up, "I was always creeped out when I was kid and the wind would do that." he said, the men let out a chuckle and returned to business. I shuffled through the closest till a found a packed black backpack prepacked with food,clothes and other various items, I smile suddenly slipped onto my face when I found a familiar item in the bag, it was a stuff animal dog named Pins, that I clearly remembered giving to Percy in the old past a couple months after he started living there, after he refused to sleep without me in the room. I remembered Hermes always teasing him for having it so he hid under his pillow.I got that familiar dizzy feel as I tried making sense of the other past and now. I shoved the envelopes into the front of the bag in fear . 

"Do me a favor and look around in the closet Robert." said one of the men, I scooped up the bag and I went around the man, and returned outside to the alley. Percy was busily petting Jackel, I tossed him the bag, "The envelopes are in the front." I informed him

Immediately he ripped open the letter, his eyebrow furrowed, trying to decode the letter, "How far away is Mount Sinai?" he questioned, I took the envelope from his hands and looked over the address.

"Far." I answered

"Not walking distance?" he guessed

"I can drive you if you want." I volunteer

"In the... sun chariot?" he gulped

"Remember I have to get yourself back to Camp too." 

He continued to pet Jackal, finally he nodded okay. 

The ride was long, Percy barely seemed awake the most of the way, I decided to engage him in a conversation. "Mind if I ask you a question?" 

"Shoot." he said groggily rubbing his eyes

"How did you you exactly get to camp during the summer, I don't think Gabe would actually let you just leave."

He yawned, "He had no clue how school, worked and he really didn't care, so I got him to believe that the school is sending me away to summer school."

"He actually believed that?"

"Mhm."

Hermes would be proud I thought to myself, "And no offense, but how are you affording school?"

"The last school I wanted to make sure I wasn't in 3 feet of them, so they paid for everything."

"Lucky you."

"I guess you could say that."

Percy stared out the window now and again the orange light, would pass a across his face as we drove.

"What exactly is the deal with your mother, is she okay?"

"I'll... tell you when we get there."

I let him sleep after that, with in a few hours I pulled into the parking lot of the Hospital, I smacked Percy's leg to wake him. He groaned and opened his eyes.   
"Already?" he said

"What do you mean 'Already' we've been driving for hours."

We both stepped out of the car, and into the building, "She's here?" I asked uneasily, I hoped she just happened to work here.

"Room 403." he said, jabbing the elevator button multiple times, it slid open and we stepped in, Percy then preceeded to hold the close door button and the number 4 till the door closed and began moving.

"I haven't seen her in years." his words were dazed, " after she left, she would do her best to always send enough money from school and to feed Gabe's gambling obsession, then I found a letter from the hospital that she got sick, and was on life support, and it's $25000 to keep her going."

The doors slide open, and we stepped out and began walking down the hall,"I took money from Gabe and the corner store I lived by to pay for it. "

We found room 403, Percy took a deep breath and twist the knob, inside the room, on the bed, laid Sally.

Her eyes were closed like she was asleep, wires ran from her to a machine that gave off steady beeps every few seconds. Percy cautiously walked toward the bed and took her hand. He stared at her as though he was trying to figure out if she was real or not. His breathing was heavy, he turned to the machine. His fingers curled around the cord the connected Sally to the machine. He grasped it in his hand.

The machine gave one last beep and died.

Percy crawled into the bed next to Sally, cuddling close to her he squeezed his eyes shut, a tear found its way through

"Percy..."

"I'm fine." he whispered

[1] "Apollo"gize hehe hehe get it? Cause apologize sounds like...yeah and... Okay


	14. To the Underworld and back

Apollo's POV 

Hermes stacked the brown box packages on top of each other, and a then proceed to scratch his pen across the paper pinned down by his clip board, he repeated this five more time before acknowledging my presence.

"Yes" he said agitatedly

"Do you love me?"

"Apollo, there are like 75 gay bars in New York alone go pick one."

I made a face "No," I said "Not like that!"

"Oh, well somewhat I guess." there was a loud clatter as 25 more boxes appeared in the air and fell to the ground knocking over more boxes on the way down, Hermes threw his head back and groaned, he miserably stopped over to the boxes and began to re stack and mark them on his list.

"I need a favor."

"Let me guess, it has something to do with Perseus?" 

My face grew warm, "Well, yes..." 

He continued writing, "Okay I'll bite, what's up?" 

"I need to go to Hades." 

"HA! you sure do."

"Damn it Hermes, you know what I mean, I need to get someone."

I stopped writing "Whoa there, do you even realize the trouble I can get in with father?"

I crossed my arms "I though god of pranks wouldn't care about getting in trouble." 

"Getting in trouble, and becoming a pile of ash are two very different things!" 

"Come on I promise, we won't get caught, last time I saw Zeus he was on a Chinese food and Spanish soap opera marathon."

Hermes looked unsurely around the room, "I need to finish these package, and then I have to deliver them, and..." 50 more boxes came tumbling down into the already box crowed room.

Hermes let out a long groan and began wading through the sea of packages, and envelopes, to the door, he tugged open the door, and stuck his head out looking up and down the hall before finally spotting something, "Hey!" he called "You, nymph girl get over here." 

I joined Hermes and stuck my head out also, I bit my lip when I spotted that weird nymph that dressed like one of those mortal teenagers on that one website Aphrodite and Artemis talk about. What was it? Something about tumbling?

"Not her..." I mumbled 

"Shh." Hermes said 

"Y-Yes Lord Hermes?" 

"What's your name girl."

"J-June." she stuttered 

Hermes shoved the clip board into her hands and began moving June into the room, steering her with her shoulders," Here's the mail, more comes every 5 minutes, I need you to count each one writing down were it's from where it's going to, the weigh, size, type of packaging, what's in each one then I need you to sort them and deliver it to its proper location all in about 5 and a half hour. 

"W-wait how do I know what's in each one without opening it?" 

"Oh you'll figure it out." 

We left June alone in the middle of the room, with tears streaming down her face

A regular drive from New York to California would take about 42 hours but for us it only took about 20 minutes, well it would have taken 20 minutes if Hermes didn't have to stop and every fucking truck stop, to chat.

"You done?" I asked as he slid back into the passenger's seat, I shifted into drive and pulled away. 

" Sledge-pork gave me his hat." he said with a large smile, I snatched the trucker hat from his hands and chucked it out the window and we drove over the bridge and into California. 

Hermes frowned at me, "You know I have a bucket list to complete." 

"Do you know what bucket list is?" 

"Yeah!" 

"Hermes there's really no point when your immort-" 

"LET ME LIVE."

10 minutes later we pulled in front of the DOA studio, the lobby was less packed than I though it would be, people die every day how is it possible that only 10 people could be here?

Hermes hoped over the counter, and jabbed the elevator button. 

"Haven't seen you about here in a while." said Charon 

"Just visiting." said Hermes 

The elevator dinged and slid open, and I hoped in with Hermes

"So what this all about, you never told me." he asked

I took the opportunity to explain what happened a few days ago 

"I'm sorry to hear that, just do me a favor and try not to get into too much trouble, I understand that your're trying to protect him but god modeing it like that at half power is really dangerous."

That's the second time I've heard that this week, the doors opened and a blast of hot air his my face, the moans and groans of the Underworld echoed. "You never really get use to that sound." said Hermes 

We boarded the ferry, a took up the oar and began paddling us across the river, in no time we were at the main gates, with Cerberus drooling and snarling at us. I nervously backed up as a large drop of thick saliva dribbled from his mouth onto the floor. "Hey," I put one hand on my bow "he won't eat us right?"

"Of course not I've been past him a million time." he said this was an uneasy look on his face, from his bag he pulled out what look like a doggy treat, that was as big as a stone. He hurled at Cerberus's middle head, he happily munched it up, His tail wagged happily and took out a few ghost in the process. 

Gingerly we walked under the large dog through the main gates, just in front of the gates was the Judging Pavilion, the unliving filed in and popped out on the other side making a the long trudge to the Punishment Fields or the happy joy filled walk to Elysium.

"That's weird there's usually a line that stretches for miles." Hermes pointed out

"Sally died just a few days ago, I didn't see her in the lobby so she has to be somewhere over here." 

Hermes nodded in agreement, "Oh and before I forget," he pulled out a small glass vial filled with a thick red liquid I knew was goat blood "one drop to talk to her, the whole bottle to bring her back I'll wait for you back at the gates." 

"Thanks Hermes."

"Just get back here as soon as you can."

I eased my way down the hill and started going down line examining each person, it wasn't long till I found Sally. She was so pale she looked almost see through, her hair blew in the wind, and a dazed look rested on her face as she stared into the distance not really focusing anything.

"Sally?" I said she wouldn't look at me, I touched her shoulder and she felt cold as ice. I removed the cork from the vial and dropped a bit of blood over her head, colour spread through her like ink in water.

"I was hold a string," she said " I was holding it as tight as I could, everything was so white,there was nothing but light a-and then I saw him. He stood there looking at me and then he cut it... the string just snapped..." she finally turned her head to look at me "Apollo" she whispered "I haven't seen you in ages... is Percy alright? Is he still with Gabe?"

"He's fine." I assured her "He's at camp, Gabe....passed away." a guilty feel fell on me

She gave a slight nod, I caught a tear in the corner of her eye "Good." she said

"I can bring you back, you can see him again." I held up the vial for her to see, she looked at the bottle and gently closed my fingers back around it. "I think it would be best if I stayed down here."

I looked at her with disbelief "What?" 

"I did my best to protect him, but I'm starting to see what ever they have planned for him,... he has to figure it out for himself, and with me around he would have even more to worry about." 

"So you know about..them?"

"I have a feeling, when the time comes and he needs you he'll tell you what's going on, just protect him for me."

"I always will, I never break a promise."

She gently touched her hands to my cheek, and smiled. I departed from her and returned back up the hill, halfway up I stopped to watch as Sally entered the Judgment tent, and a few minutes later I saw her emerging the other side and walk up the road toward Elysium. 

Hermes was just where he said he would be he sat next to the boat talking on his phone, he looked confused as I approached him, "Where's Sally?"

"She..uh..decided to stay."

"I see.... well can't change a person's mind." 

"Your right..." I picked up the ore and stepped into the boat

" Row quickly, Artemis just call we need to get to Camp, right away."

"Camp? Already? What happened, we're not suppose to be their till 3:00."

"I'll explain to you on the way."


	15. Let's talk friend

Percy Pov

"I win." I laughed scrapping up the poker chips

"That's not fair you barely know how to play."

"Your just jealous." we began scooping up the cards, even though I felt pretty rested they wouldn't release me from the infirmary. It's pretty lonely in here, not one person had been an over nighter, mostly people just came in to be patched up and be on their way. I've been in there for about a week, or so just laying around listening to the grunts and clashing of sword clashing in the distance, I would have been totally bored if Annabeth wasn't visiting me most of the time.

"How are you feeling?" she stored the cards away in the side table's draw

"I'm just fine, but my legs are going numb from just sitting here." I turned around and swung my legs over, and let it hang over the edge of the bed. Annabeth looked me up and down, "You do heal pretty quick."

"It's a gift...I guess." she continued looking at me, her gray eyes held a worried curious look that was hard to ignore 

"We've been doing more research on demon's, it's hard to find much info, but we'll manage." 

"Mhm." I answer not so intrigued by her sentence, she went on explaining what they were doing, she suddenly stop

"Your not listening." she said annoyed 

"I have!" I assured her

"Bullshit, every time I try talking to you about the quest you immediately lose interest."

"I'm just kind of tired okay."

"That your excuse for everything."

I lean back on my elbows, "Alright I'll listen, go ahead."

"Look, this morning a camper, spotted a group of demons while he was on watch." 

She caught my attention, I sat up "A group?" I repeated completely shocked "Do you know exactly how many, did they say?" 

"About 4 or 5 I think, as soon as he spotted them he came back to camp to warn us, Chirion sent Luke, Nico,Thalia, and one other camper to look for them and bring back anythin they can find."

"Their out there, right now?"

"They've been out there for a few hours actually, I'm suppose to be with them but I'm waiting for the gods."

"You guys are using the info from the website right?" 

Her face twisted, " It's kind of stare, Percy I mean it says use salt as a weapon that pretty ridiculous, well keep looking for other sites."

"But you don't know what your up against with these guys."

She patted my arm "We'll be fine." she stood up and returned the chair she was sitting on, and walked around the bed toward the exit. "See you soon okay." she smiled

I swallowed my fear for them, "Tell Luke I said Hi." 

"Luke doesn't like you." 

"Luke loves me!"

I heard her let out a laugh as she closed the door behind her, then once again it was me a the floorboards. For awhile I listen to the distant clashing of sword till I felt drowsy with boredom, my eyes popped open suddenly when I heard a sneezed. It sounded way to close to have come from outside.

"ACHOO" I jumped as the sound came again, this time I figured it was coming from underneath my bed.

Cautiously peered under my bed, even with the blood rushing to my head, a cold chill settled on my body as I immediately recognized the blue eyes, blonde hair, and cocky idiotic smile.

"STUPID!" I yelled rolling off the bed onto the floor, I grabbed Dean by his shirt collar and dragged him out for underneath the bed and on to his feet.

"Dude this place is awesome." he smiled dusting himself off

"What are you here." I yelled running my hands through my hair

"You don't think that little lie you told before would keep me away did you, I mean that was pretty good how you made it up right on the spot and all, the demigods are less intelligent than I thought, and remember?" He held up his palm that held a small cut that was begining to heal

I slightly opened my hand and realized the scar was now gone and my hand was completely unscaved "Can you please just leave before someone spots you."

"Pfft," Dean began rummaging through a side table draws, touching every thing he could

"I've walked around camp a ton of times." 

My eyes widened and my heart stopped for a mid-second, "You didn't..."

Dean closed the draw and place a hand on my shoulder, "Trust me dude these demigods are completely blind, they think that their crappy mist and so-called gods will protect them, they have no idea what their in for." 

I swallowed " How long have you been here?"

Dean rock his head from side to side trying to come up with an answer, "A few days, but the others.."

"Others?" I interrupted "Their more!?" 

He nodded, "Simrin, Marcus..." He rattled off the names one by one, but then stopped " It would be easier if I just took you to them, they're some new one from the other side." 

Together we snuck out the infirmary through the back way, and made our way to the barrier by walking behind the cabins, then to avoid any campers we took a route that was thick with bushes, and tall grass instead of the using main walkway that lead into camp, I followed him down the steep loose dirt hill till we got to the main road at the base, then we began a long walk up the road.

"Are you really over her?"

"Who?"

"You know who." he said putting his hand on his hips "her, that blonde girl really seems to like you, the way she looks at you all."

"You blind, I'm not dating her, or anyone for that matter." 

"But what about Melody?"

I stopped walking "Dean how much farther? "

He pointed ahead, I squinted and made out a large cabin, judging by the condition it was in it seemed abandoned, Dean took me around the back way, the back door swung off its hinges and creaked as the wind pushed it, the cabin was basically empty, cobwebs hung from the ceiling dust cover counter tops. 

"Achoo!" Dean let out a sneeze 

"Dean?" said a voice from upstairs "that you?"

"Yeah." he sniffled miserably

Simrin stepped out from a room that held a faint light, she greeted me with nod. The wooden steps creaked under our weight the room held 3 others, they sat around a small fire. A tall dark hair boy around 16 got up, his shirt was blood stained, it looked fresh, others seemed to have injuries in various places on their body, all were fatal . 

Marcus looked at me, his eyes flickered black "I haven't seen you in a long time,how long has it been?"

" A couple of months." I reminded him 

"Oh right" he said nodding "When I had that old crap body." 

One of the new comers spoke up " Well he's here, are we going to carry out the plan now or what, I can't keep waiting around." 

"Plan?" I ask looking at Marcus, his smile widen

"That camp you've been laying around in, I say we start plucking those demigods out one by one." 

"You say?" I started at him " And what makes him you think you can suddenly start calling out orders."

"Well last time I checked our so called 'Leader' hasn't wasn't doing any leading," he shook his head "Why would Lucifer choose a scrawny fuck like you,Who's side are you on anyway, why should we be taking orders from someone with unclean blood, you don't even care for you own kind." 

I stuck out my arm and pulled up my sleeve, they all took a long look at the scar, " I'm loyal to you guys and you guys only." my left eye had the familiar cold feeling

Marcus's eyes moved back to mine "Nice to see that." 

"Alright then," I leaned in close to him "And don't you ever think that you can just start calling shots, You keep going and I'll snap you out that body before you can say rapture" 

The room was silent as they waited for me, an uneasy feeling settled " What do you want us to do then?" ask Simrin 

I though it over for a while "I think it's best that you guys move west, out of New York." 

"And we'll start positioning for Lucifier?" said the newer demon 

A chill settled on me, "We should be preparing right?" she stepped toward me "Sacrifices don't come easy, if we're going to do this we should start now, then with you and Lucifier we can take out the gods and the humans." 

I open my mouth to speak, but was interrupted when I heard foot steps coming from downstairs,

"Who's" that?"

"Demigods." sneered Dean " I had a feeling they were following us... I though it was just paranoia."

They stated backing up farther into the room, I recognized Luke's voice as they approached the stairs a cold shiver ran down my spine, If he's there then Annabeth and the others must be there too. "Dean, Simi" I did my best to keep my voice down, I backed up to where they were in the corner of the room keeping my eye on the door "I can't have them see me."

"We need to meet somewhere." Simrn traded looks with Dean and me

"Illinois?" Dean suggested " That's one of the location's I remember."

Simrin nodded nervously, "Percy open a tear."

"What!?"

"There are no other exits genius, we need to leave now. " 

I faced the wall an held up my hands, my hand shook, I extended my arm, my blood rushed and my finger tips seemed to throb with every step I hear them take. I touched something smooth and thin, like a strand of string, faintly i could see a ripple my hand continued forward. Instead of touching the back wall, the image of reality seem to split like I was opening a curtain. a white light broke through, I pulled open the rip with one yank, it sprung open and a vision of the scenery outside flickered in it. 

"Go!," I told them " Hurry up and get in before it closes." 

One by one they quickly hopped in, just as the door swung out the Tear spring closed like an elastic band, I slowly turned around as Luke, Nico, Annabeth,Thalia, and some unimportant camper, enter the room obviously not expecting to see me. 

Annabeth's pov

Luke push open the door, we expected at least a dozen of those creatures, but instead

We found Percy giving us a two finger salute like nothing had happen, in a split second Luke had grabbed Percy and pinned against the wall, knife blade to throat "What do you think you're doing?" he growled 

"It's not what you think." he panted nervously 

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't split you throat open."

"I'm not with them!"

"We saw you with them," said Thalia "We heard you talking to them all and making plans."

Nico spoke up "He could be possessed like that other guy." 

"No!" snapped Percy "I'm not possessed!" 

Luke' jaw clentched.he dragged Percy out of the room and downstairs, he open the door that lead to the basement cellar and practical flung Percy down the steps, he closed the door and leaned against it. 

"We can't just leave him down there." said Nico 

"I know, it just I wasn't expecting him."

"Maybe Nico's correct, he could be possessed." Thaila suggest once again 

"Possessed or not he knows more info than any of us, we should talk to him while we have him." I said

Luke exhaled, " I guess your right." he reopened the door and descended down the stairs, I felt a slight breezy on my left side, I turned and found the god, Hermes, Artemis, and Apollo standing next to me. "Trouble?" Hermes asked

I nodded and swallowed, "Percy could be a traitor."

None of them said anything, we descended into the basement Percy was still down there, standing on a stool peering out a small cracked window mumbling something to himself, with Percy's small size he could have easily taken the stool broken the rest of the glass and just slip through the opening.

"Alright, we'll give you one chance to get your story straight any bullshittery and your dead." 

Percy stepped down from the stool, "Well my 'story' is a little hard to believe so you're gonna have to bare with me." 

"We're listening." Thalia assured 

He sat down on the stool, "Right..." he nervously rubbed his hands together, and rubbed is nose " where do I start?" 

He leaned back against the wall, " First off I'm not possessed, and I'm not working for anyone either. 

"Your not working for anyone?" Thalia questioned 

"No..but technically.... their suppose to be working for me..." 

Luke shot him an angry disapproving look

"But listen, their's someone else!" he said quickly "His name's Lucifer." 

"Lucifer?" Nico repeated 

"Well it's not the Lucifer that you guys know about, he's different." 

"But Lucifer and hell they don't exist, that's just how some mortals see the Underworld." Nico responded

"Well yes and no...." 

"Wait, " Apollo interrupted "What would he want with you?"

He again rubbed his nose "Well when was born, he apparently saved my but giving me a some 'gift' and now I need to repay him." 

"What gift?"

Percy inhaled sharply " This is where things get complex, ever heard of the universal string theory or are you guys at least familiar with quantum physics?"

We all shook our heads 

Percy again sighed " Of course not, well the general idea that there, the universe is expanding and it has expanded so much that there is a set of infinite possible universes that together comprise everything that exists, you know, the entirety of space, time, matter, and energy as well as the physical laws and constants that describe them and all that." We all stared at him with a confused expression " And all them a have a certain structure or nature to it, basically our universe that we know of but with small or large changes, like in one universe all our genders could be opposite or one person not being born could stop or start a whole war, there are all even universes where technology is way more advance than present day's " 

"What does all this have to with your gift?" 

"Well there are actually there rips or tears in the 'fabric' universe and my so-called gift, enables me to open them." 

We remained silent, it was a lot to take in, just listening to him rattle on and on about all this made him seem like a mad man, but I was slightly impressed by intelligence, coming from him it was unexpected, I guess there was some things I just didn't know about Percy.

He scan our expressions, "You guys don't believe me?" he stood up and walked over to the middle of the room "I'll prove it, look here this is a wine cellar right so at one point in time wine had to be here right?, well what if the people in this house never moved, wouldn't all the wine still be in here?"

"Percy..." Thalia began

" No! Watch!"

At first I thought my eyes were play trick on me, at first the cellar was bare as a sheet of paper, Percy made a movement by bring his hands together and then quickly separating them, and then if by magic, if by god like magic. A whole wine rack filled with bottles of wine was now in front of us. 

I heard Nico exhaled sharply, he, Thalia, and that other unimportant camper ( That you probably forgot about.) crowed around the rack touching it see if it was real or not. Percy walk over to look and I "Well?" he said 

I looked at the gods who have been a little bit too silent "Do you know anything about Lucifer?" 

Hermes rubbed his chin " Not really, but his name does bring a memory." 

"Do either of you remember that man who came to Olympus once," Artemis recalled " It was around the 1800 or 1900s.

"The guy who came to Olympus because apparently we "owed him", he was too pathetic for Zeus to shoot him down." Apollo added 

Hermes nodded "Yeah, but his name wasn't Lucifer, it was...hmm I can't remember it, and if was really stupid too." 

"Christstopher?" Percy spoke up

"Yes!"

"Christstopher?" repeated Luke

"Not too many people are keen on the name Lucifer."

"What happen to that guy." Hermes questioned

"He's trapped a cage in hell."

"Where is hell?" I asked

"It's located between dimensions, there's a door but it's hard to get to."

"And where's the door?"

"I can't remember." Percy said shyly

Luke did a double take "What."

"I had this box that gave me all the info, but I lost it. I can use it to go from parallel universe to parallel, create new "dimensions" and even get us to hell and back , but I'm not sure where it is."

"How did you lose something like that."

"I must have use if for something important before, for it to disappear, also when ever I use it my memory kinda does a reset."

"Reset?" asked Apollo

"There is a possibility that I may have used it to kinda reset, this reality, and for that to happen I would need mass blood sacrifices to make the box work for something as big as, but I found a loop hole. When the dimension resets, everything happens again, meaning I would need to be born again, and loose all my memory, and because memory is just a precious as blood I used that instead."

I shivered, he sounded like a god "What happens if you somehow remember."

"I would instantly bleed to death while trying to make sense of multiple realities that I exist in.

"If Lucifer is in a cage, we have nothing to be afraid of right?" I said with low hopes

"The demon's are planning to release him really soon, and when that happens I'm suppose to be leading them in some giant take over to topple the gods."

Artemis's eyes narrow on him, Percy cheeks slightly colored

"Hey I have a question," said the unimportant camper suddenly " If Lucifer exist, how does God fit into all this."

"What is your name?" asked Percy

"Nick."

"Shut the fuck up Nick."

Unimportant Nick frowned

Luke turned to me, " Well do you think?"

I looked at him, then something caught my attention, I faced the gods "Why haven't we ever heard of any of this before?"

They exchanged looked with each other, "We haven't even talked about this on Olympus, I don't think anyone has thought about this in years, it was kind of a minor thing for us." Artemis explained

I didn't like that answer, an unknown man comes asking for power and no one tries to document it?

" We need go after them, we have to put an end to this before they open that cage, Percy do you know where the demons went off to?." 

"They should be on they're way to Chicago,Illinois. We can't beat them there but we can catch up to them if we leave now." 

"All right." Luke seemed not so happy with my response, I followed behind him as he approached the wine rack, the wood felt smooth and polished under my finger tips, the a hand full of wine bottles were full and seemed unopened,the bumps and dents on the wood and heavy dust along with finger prints on the bottles were proof enough that someone once used this. I could help suppressing the thought

Luke pulled out a bottle, " I swear one hint of foul play, I will break you."

"I fight for you guys only." Percy swore, for second I thought I saw something in his left eye,but he began rubbing it turn away from us and going up the stairs " I really not convinced we can trust him." 

"Percy would never hurt us." Thalia said, her voice wasn't full of confidence, she said it like she was telling herself that.

"We'll keep our guard up, Luke " Nico said 

Luke still looked nervous, he examined the bottle in his hand "California 1977," he read, "Good year." he exit up the stairs


	16. A Melody

Annabeth's POV

We left that night, Percy left the camp a note on what they should do to prepare themselves and warning them of the danger that could be coming.

Then it was our turn to learn, we had plenty of time to learn too. The gods agreed to drive us there, they explained their issue of their powers being low, and because of an earlier trip, its going to takes us a little time.

I pulled Apollo to the side, "Uh, Can I ask you something, er Lord Apollo." 

He let out unhappy grunt "Look if we're going to be doing this, none of this 'Lord' crap, I get enough of that at home." 

"Er, I'm sorry, I just wanted to tell you Thalia, she has acrophobia."

He looked at me, "I hope that's a fear of acrobats because, without flying this trip is going to take a lot longer." 

And that's how out 30 min trip became 2 hours, it wasn't all terrible, Percy was able to give us a full lesson on demons during the first hour of the ride, during the second hour, I took my chance to talk to Percy. Alone.

"Are their any other people with your abilities?"

"I've heard of authors, even fan fiction writers who've written stories that match some dimension, but I don't think it's on purpose." he answered quietly, staring out the window. We sat in the back of the sun chariot bus(Apollo's least favorite choice of vehicles). We were just outside of Illinois, because we were riding in the sun no matter where we went we had the same golden sun set image.

"You okay?"

"Just tired."

" You have about 20 minutes, you can maybe sneak in a nap." 

"Not that kind of tired." 

I gave him a stange look, he began fiddling with the drawstring on his hoodie trying to even it out. He muttered something. 

"What?" 

"I'm sorry." he whispered "I was trying to keep you guys out of this the best I could, but I messed up, now thing are going to become even worst."

"None of this is your fault, it's not like you chose to do any of this you were just born into it. There's nothing you could do about that."

He was silent 

"So you didn't answer my question from earlier, do demon's just go back to hell or do they die?" 

He adjusted himself a little in his seat, " Well demons were all alive at one point, but then they died either naturally or maybe they were killed or something, and then when that happens they become souls." 

"Shouldn't they go to the Underworld?" 

"Christstopher, kinda intercepts them before they get there." 

"How does he do that?" 

He shrugged,"If a demon dies they go to purgatory and it may take them some time to come back, but when they return they come back to hell. Sometimes they don't come back, and they go on to a afterlife, most don't believe in it they think its a roomer."

"How so?"

" They're called, Entities. They're in a state of life where they're literally free as the wind, they don't have to worry about a thing, but they do have a choice. They can stay or come back to the work as a living Entity." 

"Do they, usually?" 

He didn't speak at first, "I know of one person who did." he answered quietly 

I jump as something plopped into my lap, I examined the object it was a shine black pistol. I picked up uncomfortably, I felt the cool metal of my knife press against the skin of my leg, where I kept it. A weapon like this is so new to me, everything was new to me.

Hermes handed Percy a revolver,Percy easily handled it, he checked the stock and tucked it away, 

"Salt bullets," Hermes said amuse " You both better make sure to make your shots count, I must have made a 100 of these and I'm still not done." 

"We appreciate it." 

"You better." he shot back at me, as he walked back up the isle 

I removed a bullet and examined it, " Does any of this work on you?"

"Nope."

"So what does?"

He turned his head sideways and and gave me a small smile that made me melt, "Your not telling me are you?"

"Gotta keep some of my secrets."

We stepped off the bus in fornt of a harbor, out in the water a large Lighthouse sat far off from the coast. "Here?" question Luke " this place is kind of out in the open." 

I spun around studying the the area, I wasn't exactly a tourist attraction The area was most for fishing crates littered the board, the stench of fish and salt water lingered in the air. "Maybe we should search the warehouse."Nico nodded toward group of steel building lined up in a row toward

"I suppose that's the best place to check," Percy agreed, we left the gods at the sun chariot and climbed the fence, Thalia held the wire as I climbed over. 

"Nico and Thalia you take the first warehouse, Perc and Annabeth can take this one, and I'll take this one over here." 

"By yourself, Luke isn't that a little dangerous.?" Thalia eye held a worried look 

"I'll be fine, I'll be even better when we fine them."

We separated, Percy took out his revolver, I heard a bullet click into place. I removed my pistol, "You got it?" he asked me 

I nodded, Percy slipped his hand into mine, I turned to look at him. " Annabeth, just do me a favor and keep you guard up, anything you see don't let it get to you." 

His words alone were scaring me a little, "Percy what are you talking about ?" I followed him to the side of the, he took out a hair pin that was clipped to his hoodie and began fiddling with the lock on the door. " Just remember these aren't Greek monsters, they were human once, the worst monsters out there."

He removed the pin and open the door, the worst smell hit my nose, I had to step back. The fish smell was better than what ever that was. I pulled my shirt over my nose, "God what is that." 

I was once again amazed by Percy, the smell didn't bother him at all. He sniffed the air and I slightly gagged. "Blood." 

We keep low, we crept behind the crates and machine, " Where is he?" we both stopped 

I peeked over the boxes, my eyes widen I was shocked to see Dean and Simrin from our English class, but I was more shocked by the litter of body's that were around them, every square inch of the floor was covered in blood, limbs and the inside of others, among the bodies were scattered syringes filled with clear liquid. The blood mingled with a strong scent of chemicals, making me feel sick "Percy." I whispered, he put a finger to his lips. 

A muffled scream, made me jump, "She still screaming Marcus?" asked Dean 

Marcus pulled a woman out from the back room, she was gagged and and bound, cuts cover her. They pulled her to the middle of the room, "Look at you." Marcus said, he grabbed her chin " Have a good sleep?"

The woman sobbed through her gag, " Don't worry its your turn now." he tapped her tear stained cheek, "Alright let's get this over with, help me get her on the table, Simi." 

Simi, rubbed her arm "Can we give him just a bit more time?" 

"We can give him all the time in the world,Simrin. He's not coming." 

Simrin hesitated to step forward, Marcus looked at her, " Your not chickening out on me are you now?" 

Percy shook me "I'll set up a distraction, you grab the girl." 

"Gotcha." 

He moved forward a bit and the step out from behind the, "Well speak of the devil!" Marcus exclaimed, "Though you were skipping out on us for a sec there." 

"Yeah?" Percy said " I see you've all been busy."

"Yep, and we've save the last for you, the master of torture."

"Torture?" 

"Well that is if they respond properly."

My blood ran cold, "master?" they lifted the woman onto the metal table. She scream and protested through he gag. Percy browse the bodies like he was in a book store. He looked toward the back room, "What back there?" Percy headed toward the back room , they followed him to the back room. 

Now was my chance, I quickly crept over to the woman. Again she began a muffle scream, "Shh," I began working on her binds " I'm going to help, but you gotta be quiet."

I had a strange sensation, I whirled around gun ready, but I was two slow, agonizing pain pumped through my leg, I fell over in pain, looked to see a knife buried in my thigh, I reached to pull it out, but someone beat me to it a strong arm wrapped around my throat, forcing my chin up, the tip of knife touched my skin.

"Lookie here," she said "A demigod, where your friends blonde?" 

The girl once again began screaming, " Don't worry I'll take gooooood care of her." 

Black smoke filled my air way, I couldn't breath it was forcing it's way into my body and filling every part of me. It disappear, everything was so dark after that, I could see everything, but it wasn't me. I wasn't in control of my body. "Having fun in there?" a voice echoed, it was her's "sit tight your not going anywhere." I heard the woman begin to cry, she made me turn my head to look at her, I stepped forward, pain hit me again. There was nothing I could do to stop it. First she took up a syringe that was on the table, and with out warning jabbed it into her flesh, the woman's body began violently twitching on the table, about eight minutes are so she stopped twitching and she was able to focus back on us.

"Dud" her voice said

She made me pick up the knife from her original body. she twirled it between my fingers, my face was forced into a scowl.

"No" 

She raised knife, and brought in down into the girl's throat, she gagged and bit, he head finally hung lifeless, blood soaked her gag rag. I shuddered.

I heard foot steps, Percy and the other demons were back with even more demon, His face paled looking at me "Oh hey Perc." I recognized my own voice, " Just having some fun with your friends you don't mine do you?" 

Their was a sudden CRACK and we all took cover, a demon fell to the floor, his body flashed like a million volt of electric shot through him. I spotted Luke in the second floor railing above, he quickly ducked behind a box, "Up there!" my voice said

"No, stop!"

I couldn't stop myself I stood up, the pain in my leg didn't bother her but it bothered me, I felt sick with every step. She picked up my pistol. More shots rang out, we headed toward the back room, not bothering to duck or dodge. 

Where is she going? In the back their were more bodies, along with some tubes and other strange liquid on a table, papers scattered on the floor, What were they making? We made it to a set of metal stares and we slowly crept up it. Wait, the others don't know its not me.

"Oh you are a smart one." she laugh her voice echoed 

Nico came into a view, he didn't hear us coming. Slowly I brought out my pistol 

"No."

Someone jerked me back there was something around my neck, the demon hollered in pain, smoke was coming off my body. 

Nico turn around, "Percy?" 

"She's possessed, get down stairs Thalia need back up!"

"What about you?" 

"I can handle her!"

He backed up hesitantly, but eventually departed, Percy threw me down along with a iron chain, Demons and iron don't mix. I instantly stood back up and picked up my pistol and pointed it at my head. Percy froze where he was. 

"Your move kid." she said 

Percy stepped back

No he wouldn't leave me 

My lip turned into a smirk, and began stepping back and turning away Percy, do something!

Suddenly I stopped, I began coughing and wheezing, "The hell?" I turn around

Percy was in the same spot has before, the room suddenly grew cold so cold I could see my breath. My breath turned from white to a thick black, she's leaving my body

I manged to look up, Percy stood in front of me. He was breathing heavier, and his left eye.... it wasn't his signature sea green that everyone recognized.It was the color of ice, his pupils were dilated, It had a heavy dark ring around his iris. His eye's held a insane blood lust look, his body gave off a dark aura. It was horrifying 

The smoke pour from my mouth, I was able to move my fingers again, the smoke blew around the room wiping up wind, I became smaller till it disappeared completely. The weight of pain settled on my leg, I sat down.

Percy walked over to me his steps heavy, he didn't full look like himself. There was a small click, he blinked rapidly a couple times, a white lid slid over his eye from the corner[1], when it removed back his eye was normal. He took another step toward me, I stiffened my muscles trying not to crawl back away from him "You okay?" he panted 

"My leg, I need something to stop the bleeding."

Percy stumbled over himself "Alright.. I just.... I'll find..." He fell, over unconscious 

"Shit." I breathed I crawled over to him and pulled him over into my lap, I tapped his face "Come on, don't do this to me now."

I heard foot steps approaching the door way across from us, without a second thought I snatched up my pistol and fired a good number of times. Dean and Simrin dove to the side.

"My leg may be messed up but I can still kick your ass." I warned

"We're trying to help dammit!" Dean said

"Bullshit!" I held Percy closer

"Look Your friends are all held up downstairs, and I don't think your going anywhere soon with your injury." said Simrin

I thought it over "You can get me out of here?"

"Not if you going to shoot us." Dean answered bitterly 

I looked down at Percy, his lips were moving faintly, "Perc?" shook him

Simrin helped me up, and let me lean on her shoulder, Dean took Percy. We moved back downstairs, ducking behind box and crates. I heard Luke grunt, I peek from behind the crates, he was thrown on ground Marcus standing over him, Nico and Thalia were in a similar problem. A female held Nico pressed against the wall, while Thalia was a on the floor a deep cut on her forehead, and a dazed look on her face. Luke was pinned under Marcus.

"Traitors," He yelled out "I'm in a room full of traitors!" 

Dean looked at Simrin and me, "Plans?" he said

Simrin ran he hand through her extremely long brown hair, "Do you still have your gun on you?"

"Yes but I'm out of bullets." I frowned

Simi leaned against the crate, "Well?" Dean pushed

I peeked out from behind the box again, Marcus had the the knife press against Luke's neck, "Come on," Marcus looked around the room " No point in making this harder on everyone." Marcus was silent for a few seconds "Alright then, line them up we'll take him take them out one by one." Marcus dragged Luke up. My heart beat speed up, I could hear it in my ears. 

"Simrin!" 

"I don't know Annabeth I'm sorry." she held her head

I look down at Percy, he was still mumbling something. I leaned down and listen closely.

"Melody."

"Melody?" I repeated

As if on cue, there was a loud pop the lights went out, sparks showered everywhere, My nose caught the scent of smoke, "Fire!" someone yelled 

Another huge crash, and a large metal shelf toppled over. "Dean come on, help me grab them." Simrin jumped up

More lights popped and went out, Percy moaned next to me. God I wish was awake. I again tried shaking him, I shift and let out a yell forgetting my bad leg. The pain made me dizzy, a single light swung back a forth cutting though the darkness. I stared at the wall in front of me, trying to steady my breathing and think. I must have really been really out of it because I was seeing things.

I saw girl, she had long dark hair. Her eyes were dark and instead of an usual eye color of blue or grey. They were black with dark purple ring, they made her look even more mysterious. At first she was see through like a ghost, but has she slowly moved closer to me she became more solid. She stretch out her hand toward me. I shiver and flatten myself against the crate, her hand touched my blood thigh. Her fingers were ice cold, not a bit of heat in them. Softly she mumbled something, and firmly passed her had over it.When she lifted it, the wound was fully gone. 

I stared at her, she smiled a bit and nodded, Percy suddenly bolted up next me. 

He panted heavily, "Annabeth." he touched where my cut "Wha-"

"I'm okay, she healed me." 

"Who?"

I looked back to girl but she was gone, in her place were two shiver blades. Percy picked up a blade, "Damn it."

I though of the girl "Percy who's Melody?" 

From the corner of my eye, a demon loomed over me. I gave a kick to his abdomen, causing him to bend over, and meet my blade. I stood up, immediately I choked on smoke, flames surrounded the place. I step forward blindly, Percy was gone. Where is everyone?

I coughed and wheezed, I need to fine a way out before the fire got to those chemicals in the back. I bent over to cough, when I came back up the girl was back. She looked different now, not so ghost like, more solid. I understood that I should follow her.

I covered my mouth with my shirt, the smoke made it hard to see I try to my best to walk in her footsteps and followed closely. I nearly walked into a wall, she stopped, knelt down and locked her fingers together. I put my foot into her hand and she helped me up to the window ledge, I turned around and leaned over extending my hand to her.

"Come on, I'll pull you up."

She looked at me and then back into the room, she held up her finger telling me to wait, then ran back into the flames, I stood up the best I could in the window still looking for her, now again I caught sight of her straight black hair bouncing as she ran. The room creaked, a large metal beam came crashing down along with part of the roof, this place was coming down quickly. The sudden switch in air pressure caused me to choke on more smoke. Luckily for me the window is slightly cracked. I used all my strength to kick out the glass. 

I turned around, and tried to spot the girl again, "Hello?" I called out, no answer. 

From between two fallen beams, she slipped between the bars tossing a folder on the ground before fully coming through herself. She picked up the folder and came to the window and gave a sharp whistle, again I reached down and pulled her up, together we jumped through the window. It wasn't far of a jump, but the landing was a bit hard.

The girl and I stood a looked at the damage, bam we took cover. Debris and rubble flew everywhere, a large sheet of metal landed in front of us. The girl flipped over onto her back, she laughed a little, "That was lucky." she said

I must have been giving her a strange look, because her smile melted off her face, she pressed her lips together and her cheeks colored, She picked herself up off the ground and scooped up her folder, she stuck out her hand, her palm was scratched up from the fall. "My name's Melody." she said

I took it "Annabeth"

————————-OOH LOOK A PAGE BREAK LOOK AT IT, IT KNOWS WHAT YOU DID————————————-

When sirens began getting closer we decided it would be best to leave, "I'll take you to the others." she told me.

Melody and I walked a good distance without talking, I walked behind her, just in case. "So," I said breaking the silence when reach a set of railroad tracks. "Are you a demon?"

"Um, not really." she said " I was but I kinda, bit the dust."

"So your a Entity?" She nodded, more silence

"May I ask you one more question?"

"Ask away."

"How did you... bite the dust?"

"Well I wasn't always like this, it was around 1910, my mother, father, and I just moved to Pittsburgh. I was 4 years old, I was our 7th move that year. My father had bought me a new dress and doll to make up for it." 

"Why were you moving around so much?"

"My father was a scientist, and my mother was able to do other worldly thing, with potions and-"

"She was a witch?"

"I prefer Sorcerer. Any thing but that word, that same year, those men accused my mother of evil and locked her away in a insane asylum, less than a month later we got a let that she passed away. My father was devastated, he started drinking and smoking more, wouldn't go near my mother's things. Then one day, when I was 11 I went downstairs and began playing around with her things, I would dress in her clothes, and repeat the incantations, and then I found that I had my mother's skills. I kept practicing, when my father found out, I though he'd be upset, but actually was proud, he said that I looked like my mother. Then one night,the whole neighborhood came after us, even the children were out there. They blocked all the exits, and my father and I watched as they burned the house down." 

"And the second time? 

"I can't remember, I'm surprise I remembered the first time so well."

"I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize."

I walked up a bit "How do you know Percy?" 

She looked kind of uncomfortable, she began fixing the papers in the folder she was holding, a faint click and her eyes went from purple to a normal dark brown "We're... friends."

Friends She said that awkwardly, from her tone I new something was up. I crossed my fingers and hoped that I was wrong. I looked up, her clothes were chard from the fire, she was pretty like one of those popular girls you see in school, I never though Percy would be into one of those girls. She's not perfect I told myself everyone has flaws.

"It's not much farther,"she told me, balancing on the railroad track

"Where are they?"

"I sent them to a safe house for travelers in our situation, Percy wanted to go back in to save you, I didn't want to risk him passing out again."

"Thanks for saving me and all."

"No problem." 

Melody crossed over the tracks and through some trees, the sun was now completely gone. I wondered where the gods could be. Melody cursed as she tripped over a root, finally we made it to a dirt rode, a small light flicker in the distance, as we got closer it grew larger. We stepped out of the woods and a large home sat in front of us along the dirt rode. In the back, was a small fire, and circled around it were the others. When they spotted us, they gathered around, asking if I was okay. 

I expected Percy to immediately go up to Melody, or Simrin and Dean strike up a conversation with her. Instead they kept a good distance away trying not to look at her,now again Percy would look at her, like he was looking at a ghost still.

Once we all calmed down, we settled around the fire to talk, Nico told me their was no signs of people was leaving in the house, but there was food, clothing, and anything else that normal house would have.

"Oh and there's an artillery in the basement." he added

"Well that's average for some people in the U.S." 

"Did you happen to see what happen to the other demons?" Thalia asked 

"No, what happen?"

Luke groaned, "They escaped, how are we going to find them now?"

"It's actually easier than you think," said Simrin "Usually you can tie a demon with a mysterious murder."

They continued to talk, it came to my attention that two people were missing from the group, I looked around. where are they. "You've noticed it two?" Dean whispered next to me 

"Where would they be?"

Thalia put out the fire, "It getting cold even with the fire, lets go in."

I stayed behind, "I'll take a look around for them."

Dean nodded, "They should be near by."

I started down the hill toward the lake, I began picking up on some voices, through the trees I spotted them, sitting on a dock. I crept closer and squatted behind the trees in the dark. 

"Alright your turn."

"What?"

"I told where I would wanna be buried, now its your turn."

"Hmmm, Walmart." 

"Percy!" 

He let out a laugh, Melody punched his shoulder,"You jerk, tell me really!"

"This conversation is kind of morbid, don't you think?"

"Not exactly, in our case." they were silent for a bit

"Okay, I'll tell you, but only if you tell me about my life before."

"You know I can't do that."

"Just a little can't hurt." Melody ran her hand through her hair, gently took Percy's chin in our hand and studied his face. "You looked not so tired," she said softly "I can tell you that much." 

"That was close today, something tells me that you've opened a tear more than once today?"

"Maybe.."

"Your unstable, Percy. What happens when Lucifer gets what he wants and you can't get out of your demon state?"

"You bring me back." [2]

They move closer to each other, just as their lips touched I turned and crept back out of the trees and up the hill toward the house, Dean was outside. "Did you find them?" 

"Yeah they're down there buy the lake." I studied my shoes 

"Of course," said Dean, he went inside

I would have too, but I had to keep wiping the tears from my eyes 

A/N: It is 1:06am and after a month of searching my brain I FINALLY made this piece of crap. Anyway that for reading this and I would enjoy it if you guy left comments on what you wanna see or any question you have. Trust me I'll see and answer them all. 

ALSO: Is Melody a Mary Sue? Please tell me! 

[1] Google Alligator blinking so you get what I'm trying to describe please

[2] Dear God this corny....


	17. I scream You scream

Percy P.o.v

"See right where I told you he'd be." a slurred man's voice cut into my peaceful sleep

"I though you meant Luke." said a girl

"This is Luke!" I was suddenly yanked up into a sitting position in my bed, I was a bit dazed but soon came to

"Hermes what makes you possibly think that's Luke." Apollo hissed

"Uh, the scar moron." Hermes was stained with a strong familiar scent of alcohol, I warily opened my eye and glimpsed at the clock, 2:00am

"Just tell me what you want..." I grumbled, I don't think they heard me Artemis had started a fight with intoxicated Hermes. Apollo pulled me aside, " Look he's been babbling on about a ice cream factory, just get him wants and you'll be done."

"I am a simple man!" Hermes announced staggering around "All want is ice cream, wine, and an orgas-"

"Okay, okay give me couple minutes to get dressed." I said quickly ushering them out of the room and closing the door. I honestly felt like telling them go bother someone else, I was too worn out to anything. Luke, Nico, and Thalia had left this afternoon to get to their destinations, but before they left Luke put us through some intense training that left us completely sore, I had only lasted 3 hours before some thoughts set in and had to excuse myself.

I rubbed my eyes and blinked trying to see in the dark, I had a miniature heart attack when I saw a something move in the closet. Cautiously I took the cold metal knob and pulled it open, when I saw the tuffs of platinum blonde hair sticking up from underneath the covers I relaxed, and pulled Dean out of the closet accidentally(more or less) hitting him in the face with the door as I did.

"AH!"

"Stupid! You scared me."

"Shit, Percy!" he staggered to the bed holding his face

The anger made my blood boil and woke me right up, I began pulling on my clothes.

Dean watched me a frowned, I already knew what was coming "Your going with them?"

"What do you want me to say, no?"

"Well yeah."

"Dean don't start this."

"Their thieves they're going to take everything you have and destroy it, has your dad even contacted you once since your mom pass away?"

I bit the inside of my cheek "Dean what is this really about?"

Dean lead against the bed stand, the moon light cut the blinds touching his face "I'm still your best friend right?"

"Sure..Dean."

He rubbed his thumb over cut on his palm from the blood pact, I'm surprise how fresh it looked, like he had just cut it yesterday. Dean's lips tightened "Never mind..."

"Can you do me a favor and tag along at least, I'll ask Simrin to come."

He blushed and straighten up, "Fine"

\---------------------------------------------------------LINE--- BREAK--------------------------------------------------------

Instead of taking Apollo's damn car Hermes demand that he just pick the 3 of us up and run us to fucking Texas.

Do you know how fast Hermes can run, let me give you a idea, he makes Sonic the hedgehog look like a fucking sloth. I don't what was worse the feeling of my heart banging against my chest, and having strange noises and whispers violate my ear or the feeling of whiplash when he stopped. Apollo and Artemis arrives a couple minutes later panting

"Okay mikrό." Hermes awkward picked me up from where I was heaving on the ground trying to recover from shock "I need you, your boyfriend, and his girlfriend to go in there and find the ice cream and then deliver it into my mouth."

Across the street from us stood a large brick factory building, Dean studied the area, "We can get in there." he said confidently

Quickly we crossed the street, sprinted across the grass into the parking lot and behind a old fashion ice cream truck

"Okie dokie." she ask peeking around the truck, her eyebrows furrowed "What the hell are we doing, we're robbing a ice cream factory,this is ridiculous."

"Not as ridiculous as Percy's relationship."

"Fuck off Dean."

"Rude."

I edged closer to the edge of the truck, not too far off was a door above it was a sign: tour

It was going to be locked of course, but with my history of being lock in rooms I could maybe get it open. "Simi you got a knife or a shiv on you?"

"Would a pocket knife do." she handed me the blade

"Wait here I'm going to try and get that door open."

I kept low just in case, it took a few tries to get it open I prayed silently for Hermes to give me a hand, the door popped open on my 4th try, I waved Dean and Simrin over.The next part was simple, just follow the tour signs.

The halls we lined with tacky old photos, and plagues explaining the the history of the factory and such, after taking a couple twist and turns we came to a long hallway with a window reveling the machines below, for tourist sake the parts of the machine were sectioned off like a maze and label hung over each of the machines naming them.

"Even if we could get down there we wouldn't have any idea how to work the thing." Dean pressed his face hungrily against the glass

Simrin adjusted her ponytail "Its a tour so they'll have to have samples" she then pointed down below to a slightly ajar-ed door "Down there, could be storage."

"I think there was a stairwell back that way." I aided, it took a bit of back tracking, but we found it just in time ahead the sound of heel click echoed. We practically dove down the stairs trying to be silent at the same time we exited and zipped down another hallway, foot steps still behind us.

"Open door!" Dean rushed

"Its locked." Simrin hissed

"Move over!" I fitted the pocket knife between the door and the frame, but before I even began moving it around the door popped open. We spit up and hiding behind different machines, I fitted myself under a pipe and between two large sliver cylinder tanks, I crouched down in the darkness just as a pair of shoes clicked by, a flash light scanned the floor.

"Yeah Mark I don't see any thing down here....I'm going to check the second floor again we'll find 'em just hang t-"

THUMP

The guard spun around, and darted toward the door again, slipping out again I watched as the guard sped off to investigate the pile of boxes that got toppled over. Was one of Simi or Dean over there?

My question was answered when someone suddenly grabbed me and pulled me into the near by room. When I turned around I was semi-surprised to find Dean behind me, his eyebrows furrowed, "Where's Simrin?" the door swung open again, Simrin bursted in a slight cocky grin on her face

"He's right behind me." We kept moving, I hopped over the parlor counter and into the kitchen

"HEY" the man yelled

"Holy shit." Dean laughed, I couldn't help but to laugh too, the whole situation gave us a rush, Dean pulled open the door and we piled in panting.

"Quick in the closet." Simrin ordered

Dean frowned "But I just got out."

"IN!"

We huddled down on the floor, and like I should have been more shocked when I realized Hermes, and Apollo were in here as well, "What's taking you so long its been like," he checked his phone "3 days."

I open my mouth to say something, but I we were already in a tight spot so I let it go, I prayed that somehow the guard's mind wouldn't remember to check the closet, but it was short lived, something broke in the closet and the man started pounding over to the closet.

Dean's knee struck me hard in the back, knocking the air out of me. The door we had come through swung open knocking over what sound like pans in the kitchen. The guard pulled out the walkie talkie again "Their heading back your way." he again ran off

Relieved we crawled out, of the closet, Hermes once again to my feet and sat me at the computer in the corner, "Do the thing."

"What?"

"Don't play dumb with me, I''ve seen you do all that nerdy stuff in that computer class."

He was right, I was good at coding and junk, I picked it up in order to "borrow" money from companies to help pay the bills, but I stopped after a couple cops showed up to question some students at school. I got lucky being in a special program I was too dumb to a suspect so the arrested a kid who just happen to also be using school computers to steal money. Technically I was doing him a favor if it wasn't for me, he never would have learned to cover his tracks.

I had nothing to loose I'll probably be dead by the time they catch me anyway, I squinted at the screen "What am I looking for Hermes?"

"Uhhh.. I forget."

"Cameras stupid you said something about camera's earlier."

Simrin, still looking around in the closet, poked her head out, "I thought you said ice cream!"

"Oh yes! That too!" he took another swing off his flask, a strange hissing was coming from him

"Oh my god." Simrin said clinging to Dean for dear life, her eyes grew wide as Martha slither out from her place in Hermes jacket pocket and curled her 2 foot long scaly body around Hermes's shoulders

"Please, you shouldn't drink so much Lord Hermes!"

"Ew it speaks!"

"Look here Martha, I drink too make other people more intresting, besides I don't get drunk till I finish the whole flask."

"You've drank through two." George fell out his other pocket with a thump

"Oh shit I'm drunk."

"Ice cream camera...okay then." I screwed a around a bit till I pulled up a camera camera one showed the entrance, camera 2: hallways, camera 5: us, (I made a note to remove any recordings of us.) camera 6 is what was intresting.

The image showed a board meeting men sat at a long table a girl stood at the the head and man behind her.

Simrin's eyes flickered to black"That's Marcus."

I swallowed, I guees this was another Finked owned factory the point of these factories were for two reasons, when people started eating they'll get addicted to the food soon they'll begin eating food so fast that people will start turning on each other, and start doing the dirty work of taking exterminating other humans. The one half of the ones that die are giving to the demons to wear, and the other half are giving to me for....energy.

"Destory the factory." Simrin said

"How?"

She took out her lighter " We burn it."

The plan was actually simple, we took any flammable substance we could find in the kitchen and had Hermes and Apollo make a trail of it from the kitchen out to every inch of the factory, destorying anything he could while he was at. That would make quite a noise so to work fast in the kitchen dismantling any thing we could and baring it against he the door, for a exit Apollo would simply flash us out of there.

It took me a bit to realize that Dean wasn't helping, he just was standing in the corner glaring I tried to ignore it, but it got to me.

"Problem?" I asked

"I though your friend Luke was suppose to handle stuff like this."

"Well were helping him out." I countined to throw strange looking bottles into the burn pile, Dean's jaw clentched

"This is real stupid, you have a whole legion of demons ready to serve you at the drop of a hat, and choose a bunch of insigificant humans and demigods over them."

"What's your problem wtih them Dean!"

"I want to know when your going stop fucking around! You were giving gift to lead YOUR people, and you been just using it for you own selfish idiotic reasons, and maybe I do sound like Christoper, but maybe Christoper is right.

"If it so stupid how about you just leave then you've been a real casualty anyway."

We stared each other down

"Good bye Perseus."

"Goodbye Dean."

And on that note he left, Simrin took a cautious her brown eyes filled with worry and fear,

"I know," I said softly, "I've known all day, there are somethings that are just inevitable."

A shuffle came from the corner of the room Apollo stood there, I'm not sure for how long, "I, uh disconnected the fire alarm and sprinklers, you two ready?"

Simi nodded "Add ing the finish touches" I help her push the gas stove over the pile , as we stranded I wondered why a ice cream factory would need a stove, but I figured it out after seeing the caked on chocolate fudge on the stove top. Simi lit the pile to aid the fire a bit.

"Okay stand back I'm adding the oil."

A familiar sound hit my ears Hisss...

"Oh my God, George!" I jumped "Don't do anything yet !"

I dashed back to the room that held the computer, George had curl himself around the chair he looked pretty calm as I struggled to gather all of him... but then again snakes aren't know for their facial expressions. I drapped him around my shoulder and started my way back, I stopped when the screen caught my eye. The had been vacated the only thing left was the furniture and the corpse of the girl.

"They really shouldn't leave there food around like that." George advised

FWOOSH!

The room became very hot, debri and glass came crashing, the whole kitchen was engulfed in flames. I stepped back into the room, Simi stood grinning at the chaos she caused.

"SIMRIN."

"Eh?"

"What did I tell you?"

"Don't set the factory on fire."

"And what did you do?"

"....I set the factory on fire."

The door suddenly pulsed someone was trying to tear the door off its hinges, scream of either agony or rage echo in the hall way. Apollo pulled us close to him, "Time to go."

__________________________________________________________________

Apollo was too low on energy to flash us back to Chicago, Artemis had to drive the moon, and Hermes was drunk. So we had no choice, but to find a old barn and camp there for the night. Apollo helped (passed out) Hermes inside, while Simrin and waited out side and talked.

"Snagged this for you." she removed her backpack from her shoulder, and tossed me a pint of rocky rode ice cream.

"Ew, it warm." I complained

"Well excuse fucking you I went through hell to get that you ass, at least say thank you."

We couldn't help but laugh, suddenly we were silent just listening to rustle of the leave as a brisk wind swooped by, the large silver moon began to fade against the sky telling us that the sun will be joining us soon.

"I got to get going soon."

"Oh... right um I guess this is goodbye." I stuck out my hand for a shake but she instead pulled me a tight imbrace "You'll be okay hitchhiking?" I mumbled into her shoulder

"Yeah," she realesed me " dont worry there are demons, angels, even human on our side, we have more than enough for an army."

"I just can't stand the thought anymore bloodshed, for something that's basically all.my fault."

"Sacrfices are gonna have to be made, somethings got to give, just be ready to lead them when its time."

"I'm... no leader."

"Nonsense, you have plenty of demon to follow you at the drop of a hat."

"I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

After Simrin and I went our separate ways, I joined Apollo and Hermes in the barn.

No one's POV

Apollo had successfully dragged his drunk brother up the ladder to the dusty attic. He leaded against thrle crate and exhaled the old barn gave a perfect view of the lake and the vast open land.

Whine

Apollo was good with strange, unusual things happening around him, but it made him slightly uneasy when he spotted the white fur in the corner of the room, the same matted white fur that belonged to the dog in the alley all the way back in New York.

Judging by the bags of feed that was lying around him, his heavy panting and bulging tummy the poor thing seem to be sleeping off a tummy ache.

Hermes groan pressing face against Apollo's side "Knock it off." Apollo began prying Hermes' s fingers off his knee "I'm not going have you vomit me, just because you make a stupid mistakes doesn't mean I need to pay for it."

"Mm where's he" Hermes groaned sickly "Where's my Luke."

"He's gone he left a while ago." Apollo gently stroked his head he couldn't help but pity him a bit.

"Im sorry..." he moan

Percy poked his end in through entrance, "There you are where's the girl, Simrin right?"

He nodded "She had to get going" Percy voice was soft a dead indication that he was nervous, he had barely even moved closer to Apollo since he had came up the ladder. Apollo vivdly remembered Percy being like this around anyone that wasn't him.

Percy rubbed his hands together forcing him self to step closer, "Um I just wanted to say thank you for helping me back in New York with my mom, and I'm sorry for yelling, you were only trying to help."

"Its okay, you've lost someone close to you I understand that feeling"

Percy sat down next to Apollo, "No offense, but how could you isn't everyone you know like... immortal?"

"Well not everyone there was one person I use to know, we were good friends."

"What happened to him?" Percy traced his fingers around the rocky road ice cream container's lid

"Well one day their was an incident and he had to make a sacrifice that required him to leave." Apollo felt Hermes's grip on his knee tight.

"I'm hope you get to see him again one day."

"Yeah I hope so too."

Percy continued to fiddled with the container, "Can I you a question?"

"Shot kiddo."

Percy inhaled shakily, "Never mind, I just wanted to know if you could come with us tomorrow."

"Sure, I'll-"

"No I need you to promise me, if anything goes wrong you'll be there." It was another promise, it was if something had given Apollo a second chance, it was a new promise and this time he was going to keep it. "I promise."

Percy studied Apollo's eyes looking for a hint of doubt, "Okay." he whispered


	18. Goodnight

No one's POV

Percy was on edge, he had been on edge ever since Apollo had picked up Annabeth and Melody and drop the 3 of them off (and the dog) in Wisconsin.

Zeus had called an emergency meeting, and he wanted everyone present. Apollo promised Percy that he would join them later on, but that didn't help Percy's stomach ache.

The old cathedral loomed over them, tattered tarps hung over the front of the building, the flopped in the breeze like a ghost. Construction workers hammered and drilled away at building.

The 4 of them sat on the steps, Percy took a final nervous bite out of his kit kat bar and stoked Jackal's pure white fur, not daring to think of the terror that could be waiting for them inside, easier said than done.

He couldn't help it, he had seen it coming. That's all he's had dreamed about for the last 3 weeks. It came with his so-called "gift."

The events began taking place the same way the dreams went, First his dog got up and wondered off across the street and disappeared into the crowd. Next Annabeth stood up, she said exactly what she had said in the dream "We need to get started Apollo isn't coming." then she paused "Are you okay?"

Percy's tighten with that familiar sickening feeling, reluctantly he stood "Maybe he's running late." He thought trying to lie the feeling away. 

 

He got up from the granite step, Annabeth grabbed his arm " Wait, you didn't answer my question; are you okay?"

Percy brushed her off "Just tired okay." 

Reluctantly they entered the church

"Weird." said Melody, "I thought that there would be more people, especially on Christmas eve."

The girls wandered around examining the statues, but Percy stood where he was, he was having trouble remembering the dream. He couldn't remember what was supposed to happen next.

He scanned the chapel, the altar was under construction as well and a couple pews were missing. Was this the correct church?

There was quite a bit of construction going on, how could they have mass in these conditions? "The doors were open", Percy thought "so something must be going on." 

Annabeth's nose wrinkled "Ugh do you smell that?"

"Smell?" Melody tilted her chin and sniffed the air " What are you talking about, I just smell incense."

"Incense?" Percy repeated "Aren't those only lit for masses?"

Annabeth bit her lip, "Maybe mass is being held somewhere else." 

Percy scanned the room, trying to pick out anything that gave him a "De Ja Vu" feeling "Annabeth where did you say the smell was coming from?"

"This way."

—————————————————————————————————————————

Annabeth had a very good sense of smell, the two didn't smell the sickly stench of the corpse till the they were directly in front of it, in the basement of the church. Even if Annabeth wasn't there all they had to do is follow the the incense to the back of the of the church, down the steps, into the basement that was flooded with ankle-deep water , candles, and a corpse leaned against the back wall. A blood-soaked burlap sack, judging by the clothing he must have been the priest. A sign hung around the man's next, slowly Percy made out the words written in a bloody Latin "Funeral service being held downstairs." he read

"You mean there's more down than we already are?" Annabeth, "It's probably a trap don't you think."

"Of course it's a trap." Melody tossed Annabeth an angel blade "When is it never not a trap, move the body dork."

Percy jumped "Me?! I'm not touching its all gross and moldy." 

"Don't be a baby about it's sitting on a trap we need to get down there."

"I'll do it." Annabeth volunteered her voice sounding tatted annoyed, she hastily grabbed the corpse's sleeve and gave a good tug, but the body seemed to be older than they thought. The arm immediately ripped off followed by a shower of maggots followed. The trio yelp trying to dust the insects off their clothes and out of their hair. Annabeth cast down the arm in disgust. Annabeth swallowed, demon business was on a whole other level compared to demigod quest, the Greek mythic world was much ...cleaner. Monsters just went after demigods, and after defeating a monster it would just turn to dust and that would be the end of it, but demons... they were different. So many more people's lives were at stake. They seemed so much crueler, so much more out there. This man was obviously tortured before death, she hated to admit it, but she actually missed her little demigod world.

"Wait what's that?" Melody said shaking out her long black hair, little white maggots fell out into the water. Gingerly she stepped over the pile of dead worms and picked up the rotting disembodied hand with her thumb and index finger.

Percy gave the wooden trap door a good tug the water immediately the rushed out, surprisingly instead of just a shallow drop, the opening to the trap door was half cover with a large rock, there was barely enough room for them wiggle through the opening. The extremely tight squeezed was unsettling for Percy, he tried not to panic whenever he got stuck, but he couldn't tranquil his fear of being trap.

Without warning, the earth underneath him disappeared, he felt the air leave him as his back collided with the hard muddy ground, the followed by Annabeth and Melody. "Could you have given us a warning?" Annabeth groaned, it took a second for Percy to realize that she couldn't see how much pain he was in the dark. 

They pressed on further, their only guide being the damp walls of the cavern and the dim glow of Riptide and Annabeth's blade

__________________________________________________________________

They say that the quieter a room is the more likely you'll hear things. A heartbeat, your lungs, and then you start losing your sanity and begin hallucinating. Your mind began depicting objects that were never there. Annabeth couldn't shake the feel that there was something behind, some disfigured creature with a putrid smell following them, using the dark to hide, and the little light they had to intimidate.

She kept walking faster and faster.

"Would I even be able to escape?" she asked herself "These tunnels and so narrow, we can barely squeeze through it, what happens if some comes after us or in from the other side?

Her thoughts just increased her anxiety, what did help decrease the pressure was Percy, she desperately clung to his arm, her finger nails dug into his skin. Trying to make herself feel less alone in the unfriendly dark. 

Percy seemed.. not right, he's breathing came out short and panicked, which he was doing his hardest to suppress, his hair stuck to his pale face, he looked like he was on the verge of a stroke.

"We'll get through this together, alright?" her words quivered out of throat sound seemed so weird down here "Just like always." 

"Apollo should have been here by now." was his only answer

Annabeth found herself studying the ground, she had no idea what to say to him, and she felt like this was suppose to be Melody's job. Annabeth's eye's furrowed at the thought, ever since she met Melody, she became a complete air head, her job as a demigod came first. Love can wait, she comforting her best friend and there was nothing wrong.

A fog horn like moan echo behind them, it rattled Annabeth's bones and made her blood run cold, heavy step mimicked her heart beat as they pounded closer and closer. A red light illuminated the cave behind them.

They bolted

Rocks and pluming went flying as the beast crashed into it, water rushed in and this time it wasn't stopping at there ankles.

"It's blocked!" Melody shrieked

The beast moaned once again, it's foot steps slowed as it closed in its red light pulsed Annabeth could make out what seemed to a shape of a man in a large diving suit. As Annabeth stepped back, as she did the floor slightly dropped.

The blonde demigod dropped her knees and felt around till her fingers hooked a handle, "A trap door." she struggled to keep her head above water "there's another trap door!"

Percy stepped forward, and in one swift motion created a wall of water between them and the beast attempting to slow it down. 

Annabeth frantically pulled on the door, even with the wall, the water was flowing in to quickly, and the water pressure seem to make it nearly impossible to open it. "It's stuck!"

Melody joined Annabeth, with her the task seemed 5 times more easier than before, together they pried open the door. The water rushed out and one by one the girls jumped through followed by Percy. To big to fit through the beast roared in defeat, pounding on the ground.

"Where are we now." Percy coughed

Annabeth had to blink, her eye we blinded by two powerful flood lights. Where ever they were, it was deep under ground, Annabeth's ears popped as she looked around. The room was huge, and the drop they had was quite far too, luckily they had Percy there to manipulate the water and slow their fall.

"It's a hospital lobby," Annabeth sat up, " There's a hospital under and church."

Percy pulled her to her feet, "Well don't lose your mind yet." he's voice still quiver slightly 

"I hate hospitals." Melody' face paled " Put's my stomach in a knot."

The lobby was in shambles, it was dirty, mysterious stains covered the wall, and a putrid stench engulfed the room. 

Percy suddenly felt a jolt of de ja vu, he felt like an icy hand was squeezing it heart he shuttered as a shadow slid across the wall, he removed his revolver and turn the barrel.

"Someone's here." the girls removed their angel blades, around the corner dozens of people dressed in hospital gowns wandered around aimlessly, some held their heads and sobbed, a couple of them were talked to themselves, and most of them would attack one another.

"Their Splicers." Melody said stepping out into the open, the others were hesitated to follow "Their test subjects of Fink's experiment."

"All these people go missing and no one notices? Annabeth observed

" Their pulling some from other realities see how some them have nose bleeds? That means their trying to make sense of existing in two parallel worlds, but can't because they've either died in this one or just don't plain exist yet. The ADAM is what's keeping them alive, they'll only bother us if we've digested any ADAM."

"Who?" Percy asked

"Not who, its a what and its a substance Fink and who ever he's working with developed to mutate cells to make people more useful, it was mainly used to people in the Big Daddy so they could survive in the suits."

 

"Useful how?" Annabeth asked 

"They turn ADAM into Vigors; ADAM's injected-able, Vigors are drinkable. It mutates your cells and gives you temporary abilities like teleportation, telekinesis, I think he's developing a new one for mind control."

"Great..."

They slowly navigated through the crowd through the lobby into the hall that was cut off by a rusty heavy metal door with another sign written in Latin was posted on the window of the door. 

"Service is being held in the Morgue" Percy translated, he twisted door handle "Locked."

Melody took that as her cue to pick the lock with her bobby pin, Melody cursed after a few minutes of fiddling.

 

"What happen?" Annabeth leaned over her shoulder

 

"The bobby pins stuck."

 

"Well that's what happens when you use the wrong equipment." Percy teased

"Um, excuse me for not being 100% prepared after rising from the damn dead, I'll like to see you try."

"Move over then." Percy took over the grind, just as his hand touched the knob a shadow slid over the flood lights down the hall they just came from.

"Need help?" Melody mocked "I can ask the guy who's coming up the hall to kill us."

"HEY!" one of the Splicers yelled, she carefully rocked what looked like a baby in a crib "Play quieter, your wake the baby!" Annabeth tried to image that there was actually a baby in the crib instead of a baby sized, bloody pile of who knows what. 

" Oh, shut up." Percy step back from the door "Watch out" he warned has he gave a powerful kick to the door, on the second kick the door bursted open and it hung slightly off hing, they darted down the hall, trying every door. 

"There all locked!" said Annabeth trying another door 

"No here this one!" Percy called they ducked into the small closet

A door slammed opened outside

"Alright who broke it."the woman fumed 

 

"A lamb!" shrieked one Splicer

"Yes!" said another "Two lambs."

"No, there was only one lamb!"

"No two!"

"I agree!" said a third 

 

"Enough!" the woman barked " Back to your cells, it's time for the next group to come out." 

Annabeth jaw cletched her blood boiled " I recognize her voice." she whispered " From the warehouse, the one who possessed me." She turned to Percy "I thought you killed."

 

"No, I sent her back to hell." Percy responded

Annabeth hand ran her hand over the hilt of her knife, a plan formed in her mind.

The static noise of a walkie talkie sounded outside , "Well what was it." said the person on the other end

 

"Their here, and they broke the door I'm going to check on the experiments, the testing has been positive so standby for more."

 

"Alright then." there was a pause "Mary?"

 

"Yes."

 

"I want him here."

 

"Just be patient Dean."

 

Percy's facial expression, it twisted with disgust " I'm going to go find him."

 

Annabeth nodded "I'm going to try and deal with Mary, I'm going to need your help Melody."

 

Melody nodded "Just try talking to him first Percy, don't push him."

 

Percy mumbled something the only thing Annabeth could make out was "Goodbye" as he slipped out the door

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

Annabeth's needed to lure Mary into room with just them alone, she actually was prepared for this. She had done some intense studying the night before and she had come up with a perfect strategy. 

The only weapons she needed were in her coat pocket: A piece of chalk and Holy water 

The only thing she needed now was Mary, she decided that the best place to set her trap was in the tunnels, it will be too dark for Mary to see where she'll lay the devil's trap; Annabeth was going to need time. It was dark up there, her blade provided a little light, but she was going to need to rely on mostly her instincts. And Melody's sense of timing.

 

Melody was going to need to get Mary's attention and lure her into the cave, too early and the Annabeth's trap might not be ready, to late and Annabeth will be at the hands of the big daddy.

 

Annabeth finish explaining her plan and wiped the sweat from her forehead "Got it?" she whispered

Melody gave a nod and the plan went into play

 

 

Melody found Mary exactly were she said she'd be along with selves filled with raw Adam and Vigors. The liquid sat in fancy decorative bottles, the liquid came in a variety of colors; they glowed softly in the dark. More Splicers littered the room only this time they were chained to hospital beds, their moans filled the room. Melody hid in the shadows watching Mary, who was occupied was a patient and her scalpel, A big daddy suit laid on a cart next to her.

 

Melody focused on the cart, the air ripple around it and the cart sudden shot backwards, Mary jumped she eyed the cart; questioning whether to ignore what had just happen. Melody crawled back into the hallway making sure to pass in front flood light so it would cast a shadow. Melody heard Mary's footsteps behind her. She began picking up speed, using her telekinetic ability to make obstacle behind her to edge Mary on.

 

It wasn't until they reached the lobby Mary blindly fired her gun causing Melody to take cover in the small cafe connected to. The Splicers were thrown in a panic, Mary stood in the middle of the room.

 

"You can't fool me." Mary purred "I know who you are, you can lie to those demigods, but I know that you don't belong here." Another bullet clicked into place "I'll tell you what, I'll let you any questions you want to ask me." 

 

Melody's heart drummed against her chest, only a few steps more until the cave.

 

"Nothing? Well I shouldn't be too surprise you know how this ends, here's a question for you: What are you doing here? What happen, you got lonely and decided to mess up some other reality?" Mary's footstep shuffle closer then away as she checked behind the front desk counter "Your not even suppose to be alive there's no reason for you to be here any longer, you heard the news right right Dean's our new leader." Mary stop in front of Melody's hiding spot, still unaware she continued to speak "I was honestly surprised too ,but Christstopher's sick you of falling short all the time he chose Dean to lead us right, your boyfriend is going to die; but I guess you already know that."

 

Melody saw her chance

 

Mary was suddenly hit with a sudden force, all the air in her lungs was drawn out of her as Melody landed on her, Melody removed the angle-blade from he back pocket and a pressed the tip of it to Mary's skin.

 

The demon let out a half scream half growl has steam rose from the metal touching her bare skin, she clawed at Melody's face as she began carving in the symbol Annabeth instructed her to, a circle with a single line drawn down from the center of it to the outside of it.

Once Melody felt satisfied she backed up making sure the beast had a good look at her, both their faces chocked with rage. Mary made a mad dash for her by the time she turned the corner she caught Melody just as she climbed into the cave.

 

Mary studied the new mark and forced a smile on he face, "A binding lock?" she said "You sill whore, it's almost like you want me to stay."

 

Mary followed she tore through darkness with blind rage, cursing her; she only stop to realized that she could no long hear Melody's footstep's in front her.

 

She paused for a second; the cavern moaned and the pipes that pumping the water within the walls hissed, up ahead she her a faint scratched.

 

Slowly she moved closer to noise and after two steps she felt herself run into a something hard a solid.

 

Even though it was dark Mary could have sworn that the tunnel went farther back, she turned around to go back. And slammed against something hard once again. In a panic she began pressing he hands on all sides of the invisible prison.

 

She was trapped in a devils trap

 

The hissing grew louder, Mary realized the hissing wasn't from the pipes, but that monster they put up here to keep people out.

 

A red light lit up the cave

Mary tried to eject herself from her body, the damn binding carved into her chest kept her locked in body.

Back below in the underground hospital, Melody and Annabeth listened as a Mary's wails pour out of the cave from the beast's drill piercing her flesh.

 

Annabeth held her side and panted her heart vibrated against her chest.

Melody swallowed " Is that it, what if she comes back she coming back?"

Annabeth straightened up and dusted her clothes off "She won't I spilled hold water all over that beast... she can't."

The two girls paused and exchanged dazed looks, Melody's face twisted in discomfort she pressed her hand "Do you hear that...humming?" 

Annabeth calmed her breath and tried to concentrate, faintly she hear a humming noise followed vibrating squeak . "Yeah I hear, I thin- hey!"

Melody began moving back to the hallways; the noise starting getting louder "Which way?"

"What?"

"Percy! Which way did he go?"

"Oh uh" Annabeth couldn't help, but space out Melody looked like she was in extreme pain; she kept clutching head like she afraid it was going to split in half, the sound grew louder to the point where she could barely stand

 

Annabeth honestly didn't know what to do, all she could do was help Melody ears with her own hands "W-what should I do"

"Go find him!"

"I don't want to leave you alone like this."

"You should be more worried about him, please go find him!"

______________________________________________________________________________

When Percy had final morgue his dream resumed, he was standing the entrance of the large room. In the center of the room was a large baptism bowl with a pentagram on the floor around it, the bowl was filled with blueish liquid a fat tube ran from the side of the bowl to a large machine that after analyzing it he figured it was the siphon. It was just as he remembered it and large machine that took up the whole room, various loudspeakers were mounted on the wall and ceiling; wire ran from them to the main machine the was composed of switches and dials. In the center of the machine a 10 foot tall cylinder made of glass fill with more strange glowing liquid and the top of the tall contraption were two coils with electricity balls on top of them. 

Stand in front of the machine in the middle of it it was Dean, his blue eyes dark with rage in his hand he gripped a knife, Percy couldn't help notice that the scared hand he used to make the blood packed now held a deep 

Percy walked closer, trying to stay clam he didn't want to fight him, "Et tu, Dean?"

"Oh shut the hell up." he turned the knife in his hand 

"Come Dean your being ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?!" He let out a laugh " I'm doing what's right." 

"Kidnapping, and enslaving people from multiple for 'science' isn't right in any form."

"It is when your purify them!" Dean took a shaky breath and turned to the machine he began flipping on switches on the machine "I don't know, we had this conversation before might as well end it now, yes?"

Percy was quiet

"What nothing, don't you want to have your last words?"

Percy bit the inside of his cheek, "I'm just glad we can stop pretending to be friends."

Dean's face paled, the twisted rage disappearing for a slight second "I am too." his voice cracked slightly. Again he turned to the machine, he picked something else up that was resting against the machine.

Percy leaned trying to get a look at the object, "This is it." said the voice "What we've all been waiting for."

Dean turned around quickly and swiftly, their was a loud crack has his gun went off and Percy found himself on the ground gasping for air clutching the area where the bullet made impact, his chest was on fire, his shirt turned crimson from the blood. 

To add to the agony Dean had flipped the machine on, the device seemed to be power by sound; meaning every time Dean took a step or Percy would let out a cry or moan the machine would pick up on it and let a out feedback sound that made Percy feel like is head was about to split in half.

He felt Dean beginning to drag him toward the baptism bowl, "Don't fight it." the voice said, but Percy found himself struggling and ripping himself out of Deans grasp, his wound burned as he began to crawl backwards. Dean land on top of him, shoving his head down roughly causing Percy to smack his head against the concrete floor. Dazed, Percy swung blindly and nailed Dean in the jaw, but the the blow wasn't hard enough to knock him off. 

 

Pulling the knife out Dean began to cut and stab repetitively, Percy didn't scream, but his body hitched with every stab.

The attack was finally halted when something huge bit his arm, an animal with fur dark than midnight and glowing red eye like jack o lantern, tugged at his arm pulling him off Percy's body. The hell-hound lunged at him, Jackal bit and tore at his skin. Dean wrapped his arms around the beast and started to squeeze after a bit more struggling Jackal finally stopped moving. Dean got up and picking knife caked with Percy's blood. He staggered over to the baptism bowl and dropped the knife into bowl. Something thin whipped across his vision a golden arrow pierced his shirt, and pinned him to the machine. Apollo notched another arrow and aimed at Dean, Annabeth stood next to him holding a weak Melody.

Dean clenched his jaw, "The dog must have led them here." he thought, his hands reached lever and give it a quick tug. A large clap of thunder sounded over head "Let's see how the god's do now!" He yelled.

Electricity filled the air over head a large dark portal filled the air, screams and howls escaped from it along with dark shadows; Apollo pushed the girls behind him "Close your eyes" he yelled over the noise He pulled back and let the arrow soar. Just as it made contact with Dean it exploded into a bright light, blinding to the mortal eye. 

The light faded, Dean and half the machine gone. 

The portal seemed to clasps into it's self sucking the dark matter back in.

The room was silent, " Is it over?" Annabeth managed "Is Dean dead?"

Melody shook her head "They're would've been a body left behind."He must have escaped."

Annabeth turned to Apollo, but found him already over Percy's body.

Melody staggered over to them, Annabeth found herself unable to move, or even look at the body.

"Look now he can rest." Melody said gently, she gently closed Percy's eyes "Now he won't be so tired anymore."


End file.
